AHRQ Director Richard Kronick to step down in March

Richard Kronick will step down as director of HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, effective March 18. He will return to the University of California at San Diego, where he became a faculty member in 1991.

Kronick, 63, has led AHRQ since August 2013, when he replaced Dr. Carolyn Clancy. His priorities have revolved around producing evidence to drive a safer, higher-quality and more affordable U.S. healthcare system.

He first joined HHS in January 2010 as deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Office of Health Policy.

Dr. Anthony Wehbe has been named chief population health executive at Kennedy Health, an integrated system based in Voorhees, N.J.

Wehbe, 34, is a board-certified internal medicine physician, and has served on Kennedy Health's medical staff since 2012. He will lead the operations of Kennedy Health Alliance, a network of primary- and specialty-care practices, as well as oversee post-acute-care services and the system's hospitalist and perioperative medicine programs.

Dr. Carlos Pellegrini has been named chief medical officer for UW Medicine and VP for medical affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Pellegrini, 69, has served as chairman of the department of surgery at the UW School of Medicine since 1993. He also developed the Center for Videoendoscopic Surgery, the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Surgery and the Institute for Simulation and Interprofessional Studies at UW.

Don Hutson has been named CEO of the University of Mississippi Medical Center Grenada and the University of Mississippi Medical Center Holmes County in Lexington, effective in June. He is replacing David Putt, who is retiring after two years at the helm.

Hutson, 52, is medical center director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Department in Marion, Ill., a position he has held since 2013. He served in the Army from 1985 to 2006, and was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq from July 1990 to June 1993 before retiring as a lieutenant colonel.

Putt, 64, previously served as CEO of University Hospitals and Health System, Jackson, Miss., from February 2010 to December 2011.

Pat Keel has been named CFO of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Keel most recently was senior VP and CFO at University Health System in Shreveport, La., for almost two years. She previously held leadership roles at Good Shepherd Health System, based in Longview, Texas, and Christus Schumpert Health System in Shreveport.

Gina Altieri has been named senior VP and chief of strategy integration at Nemours Children's Health System based in Jacksonville, Fla.

Altieri, 55, previously served as enterprise VP of strategic planning, information services, clinical informatics and analytics, marketing and communication for the system, including operations of the Nemours Mansion and Gardens estate museum in Wilmington, Del. Her new roles include additional responsibilities for enterprisewide strategy integration and digital-health initiatives.