Top 25 Women in Healthcare - 2005

The leadership of Sister Mary Jean Ryan, president and CEO of SSM Health Care in St. Louis, helped SSM become the first healthcare organization to earn the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for its commitment to continuous quality improvement. Since accepting that award, Ryan, 66, has reached out to healthcare leaders, speaking to more than 120 audiences about what she has learned through the quality-improvement processes at SSM.