After 35 years of tireless service to the people and patients of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, C. Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy CEO and Chief Health System Officer, will step down from that role on June 30, 2025, at the end of the current fiscal year.
As described in the recent announcement from Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and CEO of VUMC and Dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Jane Freedman, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine, and Physician-in-Chief of Vanderbilt University Hospital, will be Pinson’s successor. Pinson will continue as President of the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network and serve as a senior counselor to the CEO of VUMC dealing with government affairs, external hospital organizations and community affairs.
Since returning to VUMC in 1990, 10 years after graduating from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Pinson has been one of the organization’s most visible and active members of Nashville’s and Tennessee’s health care communities.
In addition to a succession of increasingly responsible administrative leadership roles, he has spent his career as an organ transplant surgeon, professor, research investigator, business leader, career mentor and community advocate advancing the delivery of health care at the local, state, national and global levels.
As health system leader, Pinson has championed a culture of service and has overseen a period of explosive clinical growth. Now, the Vanderbilt Health System includes seven hospitals and hundreds of adult and pediatric ambulatory clinics at more than 180 locations throughout multiple states. He was a major leader in the acquisition of our community hospitals, leading the integration of those facilities into Vanderbilt Health and creating the Regional Community Hospital Division. He has also led efforts for VUMC to collaborate with other regional hospitals and health systems to expand the services they offer. Most recently, he established the Shared Clinical Services Division to manage pharmacy, laboratory, sterile processing and soon radiology and other clinical services throughout Vanderbilt Health.
“Dr. Pinson’s contributions to the Medical Center’s growth and success have been remarkable. There have been few individuals in the history of our institution who have had his impact. As Wright has advanced the missions of our medical center, he has left a wonderful legacy through mentoring countless individuals who are now in leadership positions here and elsewhere,” said Balser. “As we celebrate all that he has accomplished, I want to express my deep appreciation for his partnership over the years.”
Pinson was a pioneer in the field of liver transplantation, founding the Vanderbilt Liver Transplant Program, establishing multiple transplant residency and nurse practitioner programs, and performing groundbreaking surgeries. He started two previous liver transplant programs before returning to Vanderbilt.
On Feb. 23, 1991, Pinson led the team of approximately 100 medical professionals who performed VUMC’s and Middle Tennessee’s first liver transplant. The patient, Julie Damon, a wife and mother, and former teacher at Franklin High School, is still celebrating life today.
As director of the Vanderbilt Transplant Center, a position Pinson held for over 18 years after the first director, Bill Frist, M.D., departed for the U.S. Senate, he helped build the foundation for VUMC to grow into one of the world’s top transplant centers. This year, the Transplant Center performed a record 809 total organ transplants while the Liver Transplant Program celebrated the milestone of completing its 3,000th transplant.
Through agreements he established, the Nashville VA became the third VA center in the country contracted to perform liver and heart transplants for veterans. The son of an Air Force Major General who served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Pinson established VUMC as an official site of the U.S. Army Military-Civilian Trauma Team Training (AMCT3), formalizing a longstanding relationship between VUMC and the Army to advance trauma care skills for both entities.
In addition to caring for thousands of patients and taking on increasingly responsible administrative leadership roles, Pinson has published research on the topics of pediatric, cardiac, vascular, and GI surgery, liver transplantation, evidence-based medicine, and quality improvement. Over the years, he has mentored scores of research and clinical residents, receiving the Grant Liddle Research Mentoring award.
From 2003 to 2009, as the Associate Vice-Chancellor for Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, he not only led the Vanderbilt Medical Group’s (VMG) quality and service improvement efforts, but in a significantly expanded role with David Posch, then CEO of the Vanderbilt Clinic and executive director of the VMG, his responsibilities included The Vanderbilt Clinic and expansion of clinical activities off the main campus. Pinson had previously helped form the Vanderbilt Medical Group in 1994-95 supporting the first Chief Medical Officer, John Sergent, MD. Responsible for VUMC’s overall business development and its quality and safety programs, his accomplishments included the systemwide implementation of 800 evidence-based clinical care pathways.
To impact the overall health of large populations, beginning in 2011 Pinson also championed and led the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN) as its president and board chair. One of the nation’s fastest-growing, provider-led clinically integrated networks, VHAN currently includes 66 hospitals, 12 health systems, 360 physician practices and more than 7,000 providers in an affiliated network covering Tennessee and adjacent states. VHAN has been integral to the development of VUMC as one of the nation’s leading health systems. Subsequently, he created the Division of Population Health which includes VHAN and other thriving population health programs.
During his three-plus decades at Vanderbilt, Pinson has served as Interim Chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences, H. William Scott Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery; Program Director for the Vanderbilt General Surgery Residency Program; and Chief of Staff of the Vanderbilt University Hospitals.
In 2008, Pinson co-founded the Master of Management in Health Care (MMHC) program at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. The unique, immersive program has since helped generations of aspiring clinicians and health care administrators advance their careers. Scores of VUMC leaders have matriculated at the Owen MMHC program.
As the Medical Center’s clinical enterprise leader since 2009, one of Pinson’s many projects has been the conversion of the former One Hundred Oaks shopping mall into Vanderbilt Health One Hundred Oaks. As one of the nation’s very first “mall to medicine” conversions, the former shopping mall’s transformation into a bustling multispecialty clinic has been widely acclaimed and created a national trend for repurposing retail malls as medical facilities. He has championed many other Vanderbilt Health locations and facilities throughout Middle Tennessee, including the Vanderbilt Health Walk-In Clinics and Vanderbilt Health Clinics at Walgreens.
Pinson has served as president of the American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association. The organization is the voice of the hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeons in the Western Hemisphere. In 2010, he achieved the highest honor in his specialty when he assumed the presidency of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA) at the association’s Ninth World Congress, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The IHPBA is liver, biliary and pancreas surgery’s premier organization.
Pinson has served as chair of the board for the Nashville Healthcare Council and in leadership appointments with the Tennessee Hospital Association and American Hospital Association. He served as the chair of the Tennessee Governor’s Foundation for Health and Wellness.
Throughout his career he has received numerous awards including both the American and the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association Lifetime Distinguished Service Awards, the Nashville Business Journal (NBJ) Health Care Hero Award as an Innovator in Health Care, the TJ Martell Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Regional Healthcare Executive of the Year Award from The American College of Healthcare Executives, and the Health Care Lifetime Achievement Award from the NBJ.
Most recently, Pinson received the 2024 Martin Simmons Award from the American Heart Association of Middle Tennessee for his support of the association’s work to fund discoveries and advancements in cardiovascular medicine, having previously been an American Heart Research Fellow in 1984. In October of this year, he was inducted into the Tennessee Healthcare Hall of Fame.
Pinson’s achievements in health care are rivaled only by his contributions to numerous community and business activities. He currently serves on the Board of Cumberland University and FirstBank and is the chair of the Board of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. He has been such an avid supporter of the Hospital Hospitality House that in 2019 it was expanded and renamed the Pinson Hospital Hospitality House in his honor.
