Johnese Spisso is president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences. In this role, she oversees four hospitals, more than 160 clinics in 85 locations, 2,000 physicians and 25,000 employees.

Before joining UCLA, Spisso ran University of Washington Medicine as chief health system officer and vice president of medical affairs for the University of Washington. Spisso also worked at UC Davis Medical Center, where she began as an intensive care nurse and rose through the ranks to direct critical care, trauma, burn and emergency.

At UCLA Health, ranked by U.S. News & World Report as No. 1 in Los Angeles and No. 7 in the nation, Spisso is determined to transform care for the entire community. With the expectations of payers and patients evolving, Spisso sees an opportunity for UCLA Health and the UCLA Hospital System to thrive as healthcare leaders using innovation to drive value-based care.

Her deep background in both business and patient care has given her a perspective that incorporates the views from both sides of the CEO’s desk to form an especially focused vision.

UCLA Health, she says, must identify, pilot and deploy high-value innovations that deliver better health and greater value to more people. To deliver on that goal, UCLA Health is emphasizing clinician engagement, a patient-centric focus and condition-specific, clinician-guided measurement.