50 Most Influential Clinical Executives - 2022

Austin drew national recognition in 2020 for her leadership dealing with supply chain chaos during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her team created their own replacement N95 masks when shortages of personal protective equipment raised the alarm among nurses and other clinical staff. Her mask design used a filter that reportedly blocked more than 96% of airborne particles, and she shared the step-by-step process for making it in a YouTube video. She has led the nursing program since 2017, overseeing some 2,800 nurses. University Health, officially Bexar County Hospital District, includes a hospital and more than two dozen primary- and specialty-care sites, as well as school-based health centers. The organization plans to open a 12-story 300-bed women and children’s hospital in 2023.