by John Howser
Shon Dwyer, MBA, RN, executive director of Michigan Medicine’s (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) University Hospital and Frankel Cardiovascular Center, has been named the new president of Vanderbilt University Adult Hospital (VUAH). She will join Vanderbilt University Medical Center on March 2.
As president of VUAH, Dwyer will report to C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC, and will be responsible for all aspects of the hospital’s operational performance.
She will serve as a key member of the Medical Center’s senior leadership team, and in close partnership with clinical department chairs and other operational leaders will ensure patient-focused, results-oriented operations throughout the hospital. She will also be responsible for the hospital’s long-range objectives, including continuing to serve as a major participant in the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network.
VUAH is currently a 797-bed facility. Due to increasing demand, and to support the region’s growing population, the hospital added 37 adult beds in 2018 and is opening an additional 73 adult beds this year. VUAH, rated the No. 1 hospital in Tennessee by U.S. News & World Report, includes a Level 1 trauma center, a comprehensive burn center, the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute and the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center.
Dwyer is a veteran of more than 30 years at Michigan Medicine. In addition to working as an administrative leader, she has held positions in education, quality, compliance, information technology and operations. She is currently responsible for more than 6,000 employees at University Hospital and Cardiovascular Center, which has more than 750 beds and 45 operating rooms.
“Shon was identified through an extensive national search that included many highly qualified applicants. She is an accomplished thought leader who, over the course of a distinguished career at Michigan, has held a wide variety of operational and leadership positions and possesses a unique perspective on the complexities of running a large academic flagship hospital,” said Pinson. “She is well suited for this integral role on our senior leadership team and I look forward to working with her as we enhance our ability to serve the region’s sickest and most complex patients.”
Dwyer began her career at Michigan Medicine as a pediatric staff nurse and has served in successively more responsible roles, including as a staff associate with Patient Care Services; a Cancer Center health educator; coordinator for Accreditation and Regulatory Readiness in Quality Improvement; chief compliance officer; Orders Management project director in Medical Information Technology and as an associate director, senior associate director and acting executive director in key operational areas before being named as the hospital’s executive director in 2016.
As executive director, Dwyer has led efforts to reduce operating costs, reduce discharge times, restructure governance and reduce readmissions at the University of Michigan’s main hospital.
She is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Nursing and earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
“I am thrilled to be joining the Vanderbilt team,” Dwyer said. “It will be a true privilege to work for another premier academic medical center that is focused on quality, safety and creating the ideal patient experience.”
Dwyer said she looks forward to collaborating with leadership, staff and faculty to achieve the goals of the institution and hopes to make significant contributions to what she already knows to be a great place.
“I love the triple mission of improving health care, advancing medical research and educating future health care providers,” she said. “We change the world at these places.”
Dwyer, a lifelong Michigan resident, looks forward to the warmer winters of Tennessee and will settle here with her husband, Dan, and their dog, Nellie Mae. She is familiar with the Nashville area, having a daughter who graduated from Vanderbilt University. Her two adult children, Emma and Dylan, now live in New York City.
“The kids are grown and my husband and I are both excited for this new life adventure,” said Dwyer.
