Cerise named incoming CEO of Parkland Health

Who: Dr. Fred Cerise, 51

New position: Incoming CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas. He takes over for interim CEO Robert Smith. A start date has not been determined.

Filling a void: The public system has been without a permanent CEO since longtime CEO Dr. Ron Anderson was reassigned in August 2011 and stayed on at Parkland in a consulting role. In September of that year, Parkland began a systems improvement agreement with the CMS after the agency concluded in a review that Parkland needed to make improvements in quality, safety and the standard of care for its patients.

Previous roles: Most recently, Cerise, an internal medicine physician, has served as associate dean for clinical affairs at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. From 2007 to 2012, he was VP for health affairs and medical education for the LSU system.

Why he was chosen: Debbie Dudley Branson, chair of Parkland's Board of Managers, told Modern Healthcare that Cerise was chosen from a field of three candidates after a lengthy search. “I like the fact that, aside from a CEO, he has been an outspoken advocate for public healthcare and its importance to communities,” Dudley Bransonsaid in Parkland's announcement about Cerise.