New CEO to lead UTSW’s Clements University Hospital
Traci d’Auguste brings extensive leadership experience in academic medicine, most recently at University of Florida Health Shands Hospital
DALLAS – Oct. 01, 2025 – Traci d’Auguste, M.B.A., M.S.H.A., who has more than two decades of leadership experience in academic medicine, is the new Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital (CUH), effective today.
Ms. d’Auguste joins UT Southwestern from the University of Florida Health Shands Hospital, where she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for almost six years. In her new role, she will be responsible for operational oversight of CUH and Zale Lipshy Pavilion.
UT Southwestern has been the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth for nine consecutive years and ranks among the nation’s top hospitals for care in 12 specialties – the most of any hospital in Texas, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals list.
“I am humbled by the opportunity to support the incredible teams at UT Southwestern and look forward to helping more individuals in our community access our preeminent care,” Ms. d’Auguste said.
She succeeds Chris Rubio, M.B.A., Vice President and Health System Chief Operating Officer, who has served as Interim CEO of Clements University Hospital since the April 2023 departure of John Warner, M.D., the former Executive Vice President of Health System Affairs who also served as CEO of CUH.
A native of Alabama, Ms. d’Auguste has spent most of her career leading large, mission-driven health care organizations, focusing on strategic planning, program development, and organizational growth, through partnerships with clinical chairs, physician colleagues, nurses, advanced practice providers, and support staff at those institutions. At UF Health Shands Hospital, a 1,100-plus-bed quaternary care center and teaching hospital in Gainesville, Florida, she directed clinical operations, nursing services, and behavioral health, which included more than 10,000 employees.
As CEO of Clements University Hospital, Ms. d’Auguste will collaborate with Health System leaders to advance strategic priorities, enhance operational performance, and ensure exceptional patient outcomes. She also will partner with clinical department chairs, physicians, and other providers, as well as with campus leadership, to promote a culture of high reliability, teamwork, and continuous improvement. In addition, Ms. d’Auguste will oversee UTSW’s Solid Organ Transplant Program and the cardiovascular service line.
“We are thrilled to welcome a leader of Ms. d’Auguste’s caliber and experience to UT Southwestern,” said Jonathan Efron, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs and Professor of Surgery. “She brings a proven track record of operational excellence and innovative program development to Clements University Hospital, and our patients will benefit from her extensive background and focus on ensuring the highest quality care.”
Ms. d’Auguste started in her position at UF Health Shands in December 2019, just three months before the COVID-19 pandemic began. She helped launch the health system’s COVID-19 command center and, as the pandemic progressed, learned new leadership lessons on the fly.
“Leading through the COVID-19 pandemic at UF Health Shands, I learned the power of teamwork, the importance of listening, and how compassion can carry us through the toughest of times,” Ms. d’Auguste said. “Those experiences taught me invaluable lessons in resilience, adaptability, and the importance of transparent communication. As I step into this new role at UTSW Clements University Hospital, I will apply those lessons by creating an environment where people feel heard, valued, and supported – because that’s when we deliver the best care for our patients.”
Under Ms. d’Auguste’s leadership, UF Health Shands improved hospital-to-hospital transfer times and achieved growth in hospital admissions, despite operating under high census conditions. She led implementation of a 24/7 telepsychiatry service across all four UF Health emergency departments and drove systemwide initiatives to reduce length of stay, strengthen care coordination, and enhance safety across all care sites.
Before joining UF Health, Ms. d’Auguste held other leadership roles, including Vice President of Clinical Operations at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital (and previously nine years at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan); Associate Vice President at Rush University Medical Center; and Senior Administrator at the University of Chicago Medicine. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Alabama and master’s degrees in health care administration and business administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 23 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,200 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in more than 80 specialties to more than 140,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.1 million outpatient visits a year.