by Christina Echegaray
Kevin Churchwell, MD, former chief executive officer of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been named CEO of Boston Children’s Hospital, effective March 31, 2021.
Churchwell, who currently serves as president and chief operating officer for Boston Children’s, will assume the role being vacated by current Boston Children’s CEO, Sandi Fenwick, who is retiring. He will continue to serve as president.
“I am honored and excited by this opportunity,” Churchwell said. “I look forward to building on the more than 150 years of world-leading and world-changing care, discovery and innovation that have defined and distinguished Boston Children’s. I look forward as well to serving as an advocate for investing in children, especially those whose health care needs are currently underserved.”
Churchwell served as CEO and executive director of Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt from 2007 to 2010, when he departed to take a position as chief executive officer for Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware.
A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Churchwell completed his pediatric residency and a clinical fellowship in anesthesia and pediatric critical care at Boston Children’s Hospital.
He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1995, and went on to serve in various capacities at Children’s Hospital, including as chief of staff/associate medical director for the hospital, medical director of the Children’s Hospital Pediatric Critical Care Services; transport director for Children’s Hospital; medical director of the Children’s Health and Injury Prevention Program; and director of the Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship Program.
Boston’s announcement about Churchwell comes on the heels of the recent appointment of his twin brother and former Vanderbilt cardiologist Keith Churchwell, MD, to the role of president of Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in Connecticut. They are also the brothers of André Churchwell, MD, Levi Watkins Jr., MD Professor, Chief Diversity Officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity Affairs for Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for Vanderbilt University.
“Our family is super close and to see Kevin get promoted to president and CEO after serving as president and COO at Boston Children’s Hospital for a number of years is fantastic. Any success the siblings achieve is connected back to the teachings and home training of our late parents, Robert and Mary,” André Churchwell said.
