Health System Administration

Bruce A. Meyer, MD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and Chief Clinical Officer, is responsible for overseeing the entire UT Southwestern clinical enterprise, including the medical center’s University Hospitals & Clinics as well as patient-care relationships with Parkland Health & Hospital System and Children’s Medical Center Dallas. Before joining UT Southwestern in 2007, Dr. Meyer served as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and President of UMass Memorial Medical Group, a 750-member physician faculty practice. Dr. Meyer is the former Vice Chair and Director of Obstetrics and Maternal Fetal Medicine at SUNY-Stony Brook and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is the author of more than 70 peer-reviewed publications, has won numerous teaching awards, and served as a residency program director, fellowship director, and clerkship director. Dr. Meyer earned his medical degree from the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio and his MBA from the University of Tennessee.

John Warner, MD, MBA, was named Chief Executive Officer, UT Southwestern University Hospitals effective February 2012. An interventional cardiologist, Dr. Warner is also the Medical Director of the Doris and Harry W. Bass Jr. Clinical Center for Heart, Lung, and Vascular Disease. He previously served as Assistant Vice President for Hospital Planning, where he was instrumental in the design and planning of UT Southwestern’s new 460-bed University Hospital, slated to open in 2015. Dr. Warner received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University and his MBA from the Physician Executive Program at the University of Tennessee. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern, where he served as Chief Resident, and fellowship training in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Warner returned to UT Southwestern in 2003. His research interests and publications have centered on acute coronary syndromes, adult congenital heart disease, risk factors for coronary artery plaque rupture, and progression of atherosclerosis.

Holder of the:

• Jonsson-Rogers Chair in Cardiology

John Douglas Rutherford, MD, serves as Vice President for Clinical Operations at UT Southwestern Medical Center and holds a Chair in Cardiology. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty as Professor of Medicine in 1993 and received the Distinguished Physician Award in recognition of outstanding individual contributions to Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1995 and the Gifted Educator Award of the American College of Cardiology in 2011. Dr. Rutherford, who earned his medical degree from the University of Otago in his native New Zealand, was the recipient of a traveling Research Fellowship from the New Zealand National Heart Foundation and was a Research Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rutherford was recruited to the Harvard Faculty in 1978 as a cardiologist and later was appointed co-director of the Samuel A. Levine Cardiac Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Bruce M. Fairbanks, CPA, is Vice President of Health System Financial Affairs at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Mr. Fairbanks, who holds an MBA from the University of Southern Mississippi, joined UT Southwestern in 2003. He is responsible for all of the financial aspects of the clinical activity of UT Southwestern, including University Hospitals, ambulatory clinical operations, and the faculty practice plan, with a combined net revenue of approximately $1 billion. Mr. Fairbanks previously served as Chief Finance Officer and Senior Finance Strategist for the UC Davis Health System in Sacramento and as partner/owner of a health care financial consulting firm that specialized in resolving the financial and operational problems of distressed hospitals. In addition to his role at UT Southwestern, Mr. Fairbanks is a member of the UT System-wide Revenue Cycle Enhancement Task Force and serves on the Board of Directors for the North Texas Kidney Foundation.

Holder of the:

• J.B. Howell Professorship in Melanoma Education and Detection

Stan Taylor, MD, oversees all outpatient clinics in the UT Southwestern health system as Associate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Ambulatory Care. He is Director of the university’s Skin Surgery and Oncology Clinic. Dr. Taylor joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1991 as an Assistant Professor of Dermatology and was voted outstanding teacher in the department numerous times. He has been recognized as a leading dermatologist in local, state, and national publications, including Texas Monthly, D Magazine, and America’s Top Doctors for Cancer. Previously, Dr. Taylor taught in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Michigan Medical Center, and he was a clinical investigator at the University of Michigan Cancer Center. Dr. Taylor earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

As Associate Vice President for Parkland Health and Hospital System Affairs, Christopher Madden, MD, is the primary liaison between UT Southwestern and Parkland Health and Hospital System. He began his career with UT Southwestern in 2003 as an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and eventually became Director of Neurosurgery for Parkland Hospital. Dr. Madden performed his residency at Ohio State University and he completed a fellowship in skull base surgery at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England. Dr. Madden has been honored by Best Doctors, Inc. and D Magazine as one of the best neurosurgeons in the nation and city, respectively. He is a former president of the Texas Association of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Madden earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

W. Gary Reed, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Surgery, is Chief Quality Officer of UT Southwestern University Hospitals & Clinics. He heads the Office of Quality Improvement and Safety and oversees clinical quality and patient safety at UT Southwestern, promoting a medical culture that demonstrates a commitment to quality patient care and to developing educational programs that teach the science of continuous quality improvement to faculty, staff, and trainees. Dr. Reed, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, received his medical degree from and performed his residency at UT Southwestern. Dr. Reed was the initial recipient of the Patricia and William L. Watson Jr., M.D., Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine, which recognizes a UT Southwestern clinician whose work exemplifies commitment to outstanding patient care and the advancement of innovative medical therapy. Dr. Reed has previously served as Vice Chairman for Clinical Affairs at Parkland Memorial Hospital. His research interests include alternative and herbal medicine and hypertension.

Holder of the:

• The Irene Wadel & Robert Atha Professorship of Internal Medicine, in Honor of John W. Burnside, M.D.

After time as Medical Director of the William T. and Gay F. Solomon Division of General Internal Medicine, Steven L. Leach, MD, professor of Internal Medicine, was named Chief Medical Officer for UT Southwestern’s University Hospitals. In this role, he works with physicians on patient safety and quality programs and is involved in new hospital planning, coordinating medical staff input and the integration of the overall care team. Dr. Leach received this MD from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, then completed his residency in Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern. He is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Since joining the UT Southwestern faculty, Dr. Leach has been involved in the implementation of ambulatory electronic medical records and has been recognized with the creation of the Charron and Peter Denker Fund for Medical Excellence, in Honor of Steven Leach, M.D.

As Chief Nursing Officer of UT Southwestern University Hospitals, Donna Richardson, MSN, DNP(c), RN, NEA-BC, is responsible for nursing leadership, practice standards, and policies for more than 1,100 nurses at the 452-bed academic health center. In her current role, Ms. Richardson is focused on improving the role of nursing within the organization, including improving patient outcomes with established nurse/physician teams, focusing on core measures, quality improvement, and other initiatives. Previously, Ms. Richardson was Director of Medical/Surgical & Oncology, where she was instrumental in providing leadership and coordination between Bone Marrow Transplant, Psychiatric, Medical/Surgical, and Oncology units at the two University Hospitals. Throughout her career she has remained true to her number one priority: the patient. Ms. Richardson holds a BSN from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a MSN from the University of Texas at Tyler. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) at Texas Christian University.

As Associate Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for Ambulatory Care, Randall F. Jones, DHA, leads the administrative, financial, and operational activities of all outpatient clinics in the health system. Before joining UT Southwestern in 2011, Dr. Jones was a health care management consultant and the former President and CEO of UNT Health, the faculty practice plan for the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth. Dr. Jones is a retired medical service corps officer from the United States Air Force, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, and served on the staff of the Secretary of Defense between 1995 and 1997.  Additionally, he holds faculty appointments in health policy and health care administration at Texas Christian University and at A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri. Dr. Jones earned a doctorate in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina, and a master's in public administration from the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Jones is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executive, and a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives.