It’s a cliché to say someone followed a long journey to where they are today, but that’s literally the case with Patricia “Pat” Maryland, soon-to-be president and CEO of Ascension Healthcare, where she will be responsible for the strategic and operational aspects of Ascension’s healthcare division, with 141 hospitals and 2,500 sites of care in 24 states and Washington, D.C. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the country and largest Catholic health system in the world. Maryland was born in Liverpool, England, graduated high school in West Berlin, Germany, and received her undergraduate degree in Alabama. “I was an Air Force brat. My father spent 31 years in the Strategic Air Command,” says Maryland, who earned a master’s from the University of California Berkeley in biostatistics and a doctorate in public health from the University of Pittsburgh. Now President, Healthcare Operations and COO of Ascension Healthcare, she will become the President and CEO of Ascension Healthcare on July 1, 2017. She previously served as president and CEO of St. John Providence Health System, Warren, Michigan, and as the Michigan Ministry Market Leader for Ascension Healthcare, where she provided strategic and operational leadership for St. John Providence while promoting alignment among health ministries within the Michigan market and with the system office on issues related to mission and vision. When asked if she has any time for hobbies she laughs and says she tries to be a great wife to her biostatistician husband, great mother to two adult children, a
daughter 27 and son 22, and tries to live a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy and exercising.