Tanmay Mathur, MS, MBA, has been named Vice President for the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital (VPH). Mathur will begin this new role on July 15, succeeding Mary Pawlikowski, MA, MEd, PsyD (ABD), who is retiring from VPH and Vanderbilt Behavioral Health this summer.
As Vice President for VPH, Mathur will report to Lee Ann Liska, MBA, President and Chief Operating Officer of Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH), and Meg Rush, MD, MMHC, President of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
VPH achieved Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for the fourth time in 2022. As a stand-alone psychiatric hospital, VPH is one of only three stand-alone Magnet-designated psychiatric hospitals in the U.S. and the only Magnet designated stand-alone psychiatric hospital in the Southeast. VPH is also the only stand-alone psychiatric hospital that has achieved Magnet designation four times.
“With a critical shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds and other behavioral health services throughout the region, and the demand for these services soaring, the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital has never been more important to our health system,” said C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “I thank Mary Pawlikowski for her dedicated leadership of VPH. In addition, I welcome Mr. Mathur to our leadership team and look forward to his contributions.”
Mathur will play an instrumental role in the development and implementation of long-term strategies, prepare operating and capital expenditure budgets and perform personnel administration functions specific to VPH.
“After a competitive search, Tanmay is an excellent choice to lead VPH. He has deep experience in leadership of psychiatric hospitals, and we look forward to his return to Nashville,” Liska said.
Mathur joins Vanderbilt University Medical Center from Acadia Healthcare, where he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Covington Behavioral Health in the greater New Orleans area since 2018. He also served as CEO of Acadia’s Riverwoods Behavioral Health System in the greater Atlanta area. Prior to his roles with Acadia, Mathur was the Senior Manager of Corporate Strategy at Wellcare Health Plans and Manager of Corporate Strategy at Humana.
Mathur has a Master of Business Administration from Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management; a Master of Science in Pharmacology from Tulane University School of Medicine; and a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Tulane University.
“I look forward to working with Tanmay as we continue the journey to better serve the children and adolescents we collectively serve across the region and state. Over the past several years, we have created more cohesive planning for children who arrive in the Monroe Carell emergency room. This new organizational alignment will only improve our ability to build better models of care,” Rush said.
The role of Vice President for VPH was created to further align the hospital with VUH and Monroe Carell. Liska and Rush will work closely with Mathur to ensure the smooth transition of adult and pediatric patients from VUH and Monroe Carell to VPH. They will also collaborate on the excellent care these patients already receive at VPH.
Mathur said he plans to carry on the tradition of providing exceptional patient care for psychiatric patients at VPH, providing a space for world-class teaching and research and serving as a voice for mental health care in Middle Tennessee.
“It is my honor to be selected as the next leader of Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital. I will look to find ways to drive value by continuing to integrate behavioral health care into our community,” he said. “Over the past few months, I’ve met with a number of members on the VUMC and VPH leadership teams: Their passion brings me a lot of energy and I cannot wait to get started. On a personal note, I received my MBA from Vanderbilt, so it is a special place for me. I’m excited to come back to Nashville and serve in this new role.”
