Dr. Cary Sennett named CEO of Asthma and Allergy Foundation, and other moves

Dr. Cary Sennett has been named president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Sennett, 61, an internist, most recently served as a VP at Indianapolis-based WellPoint, where he worked on quality-improvement programs for primary care. He has more than 25 years of healthcare experience, including time as a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Economic Studies Program and managing director for healthcare finance reform at the Brookings' Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform.

Sinai Health System in Chicago has named Karen Teitelbaum, currently executive VP and COO for the system, its next president and CEO, effective July 1. She will replace CEO Alan Channing, 69, who announced in March that he is retiring after 10 years in the post. During his tenure, he oversaw Sinai's resurgence from an organization that was at one time in financial trouble into one of the leading safety net hospital systems in the country.

Teitelbaum, 57, has served in her current position since 2007. Her previous work includes strategic planning, medical staff development and managed-care contracting at teaching and community hospitals. She also previously served as a senior executive for a network of 12 Catholic hospitals.

Peter Hofstetter has been named CEO of Willamette Valley Medical Center, McMinnville, Ore., effective Aug. 1. Willamette is an affiliate of Capella Healthcare.Hofstetter, 61, has more than 30 years' experience as a hospital CEO. He currently heads Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, N.M., a post he's held since 2009. Before that, he was CEO for 15 years at Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vt. He also served as CEO for six years at J.C. Blair Memorial Hospital in Huntington, Pa., and as CEO/administrator for four years at Notre Dame Hospital, Central Falls, R.I.

John Sernulka will retire as CEO of Carroll Hospital Center, effective July 1, after serving 26 years at the small stand-alone hospital in Westminster, Md. Leslie Simmons, the hospital's president, will take over the top job.

Sernulka, 64, said he had initially planned to retire three years ago, but the board asked him to stay on as the hospital completed a capital campaign for its new cancer center.

Dr. Peter Person, CEO of Essentia Health, plans to retire in 2015.

Person, 63, an internal medicine physician, has served as the top executive at Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia since its creation in 2004. Essentia was initially formed through the integration of Benedictine Health System and SMDC Health System. The organization has continued to expand and now has 18 hospitals and 66 clinics serving four states.

The system has begun a search for Person's successor.

Dr. Ora Pescovitz, former CEO of the University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, has been named a senior VP at drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. in Indianapolis, effective in October.

Pescovitz, 56, a pediatric endocrinologist, lived in Indianapolis for 21 years before moving to Ann Arbor in 2009 to head UM Health System. She was CEO of Riley Hospital for Children from 2003 to 2009 and a top researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where she was executive associate dean of research affairs from 2000 to 2003.