Michele Acito
Chief Nursing Officer
Holy Name

Acito runs the full scope of nursing and patient care at Holy Name, spanning critical care, surgical services, inpatient care and telemedicine. She works closely with administrative and physician leadership to keep safety and quality initiatives sharp across the medical center.

Bob Adams
President
Atlantic Health, Hackettstown Medical Center and Newton Medical Center

A longtime Atlantic leader with deep operational chops, he’s focused on expanding access in Warren and Sussex counties — strengthening emergency services, upgrading surgical and imaging capabilities, and pushing care closer to home for rural patients who often have fewer options.

Dr. Andy Anderson
Chief Medical Officer & Chief Quality Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Anderson has spent his RWJBH tenure knitting together a 2,500-provider medical group, expanding population health work and redesigning primary care across more than 120 practice sites. His lean initiatives in laboratory, radiology and blood-product use have already trimmed more than $5 million in annual spending while shortening hospital stays.

Bill Arnold
CEO
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital – New Brunswick

Arnold wears two hats at RWJBarnabas Health: CEO in New Brunswick and president of the system’s Southern Region, which covers Monmouth Medical Center, Monmouth South and Community Medical Center. He’s leading the push to integrate those programs around quaternary care — cardiovascular, trauma, neuroscience and organ transplantation.

Ilham Atir
Director of Laboratory Services
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center

Atir leads the diagnostic operations that anchor Bergen New Bridge’s clinical care, driving quality, innovation and access. Her team earned global recognition for advancing cervical-cancer screening through HPV genotyping and patient self-collection — a model improving outcomes and equity for women across North Jersey.

Sam Bayoumy
President
Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation

Bayoumy runs day-to-day operations across Kessler’s four hospital campuses, with his hand on everything from clinical quality and safety to regulatory compliance, financial management and the organization’s growth strategy.

Karteek Bhavsar
Chief Operating Officer
Valley Health System

A 25-year Valley veteran, Bhavsar provides operational leadership across the system, with a portfolio that spans margin enhancement, the push toward becoming a high-reliability organization, information systems and facilities. Valley has long been a Top 10 hospital in the state.

Dr. Stephen Brunnquell
President
Englewood Health Physician Network

Brunnquell has been instrumental in expanding Englewood Health’s regional presence, leading the Physician Network — one of the largest in northern New Jersey with more than 800 providers across over 100 locations. A practicing internist and an ordained Roman Catholic priest, he received the Englewood Health Foundation’s 2026 Touchstone Award, its highest philanthropic distinction.

Vito Buccellato
President
Jersey Shore University Medical Center

Buccellato leads a medical center that’s a fixture among the state’s top 10 hospitals, with particular strength in pediatrics — JSUMC is home to the state’s first Level 1 pediatric trauma center verified by the American College of Surgeons.

Michael Charlton
CEO
AtlantiCare

Charlton, a former AtlantiCare board chair turned CEO, has spent 2026 building out AtlantiCare’s academic footprint: in May, the system formalized a deal with Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine to open a regional campus in Atlantic City, and struck a companion alliance with Stockton University to launch the Stockton-AtlantiCare College of Community Health.

Dr. Hillary Cohen
Chief Medical Officer
Englewood Health

Cohen brings a global-health lens to the job, shaped by her work with the World Health Organization. She’s steered Englewood’s clinical strategy toward population health and preventive care, with a particular focus on health disparities and the social determinants of health at what is now a top five hospital in the state.

 

Jennifer D’Angelo
Chief Operating Officer & General Manager
New Jersey Innovation Institute

She brings more than two decades of experience driving healthcare innovation, with a leadership style rooted in collaboration, accountability and servant leadership. Her work has secured over $100 million for digital health initiatives, modernized provider platforms and advanced statewide efforts in AI, predictive analytics and patient experience.

 

John Doll
Chief Operating Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Doll runs day-to-day operations at RWJBH and chairs the system’s strategic planning council across every service line, including the recent integration of behavioral health with Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. RWJBH has two of the top ten hospitals in the state.

Kenny Esser
President; EVP, Behavioral Health
Riverview Medical Center; Hackensack Meridian Health

He recently was named chief hospital executive at Riverview Medical Center, where he’s steering roughly $60 million in capital projects, including a 50% expansion and reorganization of the emergency department as the Red Bank hospital marches toward its 100th anniversary in 2028.

Regina Foley
President, Specialty Hospitals and Clinical Services
Hackensack Meridian Health

Foley oversees clinical strategy and operations across HMH’s specialty hospitals — Carrier Clinic, the Johnson Rehabilitation Institute, the Long Term Acute Care Hospital at Raritan Bay — along with nursing, rehabilitation, pharmacy, imaging and the system’s transfer center.

Dr. Frank Ghinassi
CEO, SVP
Rutgers Health, RWJBarnabas Health

Ghinassi leads one of the nation’s largest academic behavioral-health systems, overseeing UBHC’s statewide network of inpatient units, outpatient programs, addiction services, crisis lines, Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers, correctional health, research and training. He also directs RWJBarnabas Health’s behavioral-health and addictions strategy, advancing fully integrated, interdisciplinary care across New Jersey.

Ben Goldstein
VP, Public & External Affairs
Hackensack Meridian Health

Since joining Hackensack Meridian Health in 2020, he’s helped elevate the system’s profile through high-impact public relations campaigns and executive communications that support major initiatives — from leadership restructurings to clinical expansions — across the HMH footprint.

Balpreet Grewal-Virk
SVP, Community Health
RWJBarnabas Health

With a 50-plus-member team of community health workers serving Newark, Jersey City, West Orange and New Brunswick, Grewal-Virk is driving major health-equity initiatives, including a new Retail Pharmacy and Food “Farmacy” with Saint James Health and an 8,000-square-foot Newark food hub launching in 2025 to bring fresh produce directly into schools, pantries and community centers.

George Helmy
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Always a power player, Helmy’s recently expanding scope of influence now includes government affairs and public policy; internal and external corporate communications; community health and social impact; regulatory affairs and system planning; philanthropy and grants; and sponsorships and partnerships.

Nancy Holecek
Chief Nursing Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Holecek sets nursing strategy for a workforce of more than 11,000 across RWJBH, with her hands in everything from fiscal planning to patient satisfaction and care coordination.

Dr. Tudor Jovin
Medical Director of Cooper Neurological Institute
Cooper University Health Care

Jovin, one of the nation’s first interventional neurologists, treats the full range of stroke and cerebrovascular disease using minimally invasive techniques for conditions from carotid stenosis to brain aneurysms.

Scott Leighty
EVP, Chief Health System Officer
Atlantic Health

Leighty, a Yale-trained molecular biophysicist with a Kellogg MBA, oversees operations for Atlantic Health’s hospitals, service lines and post-acute network, driving system-wide standardization and integration. He’s known for market repositioning strategies and lean-inspired performance gains in safety, quality, patient experience and margin — work that underpins Atlantic’s perennial top rankings and its push toward value-based care.

Dr. Steven Libutti
Director
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey

Libutti is architecting a unified, statewide oncology program across RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers. The opening of the Melchiorre Cancer Center marks the latest milestone in his “many doors, one program” vision, expanding access to precision medicine, advanced technology and coordinated cancer care for patients across New Jersey.

Deb Lienhardt
Chief Business Development and Legal Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Lienhardt pairs a legal background with two decades in health care to build alignment structures for RWJBH’s growth — competitive, compliant and, by her account, unlike anything else in the market.

Jose Lozano
Chief Growth Officer
Hackensack Meridian Health

Among so many other duties and responsibilities, Lozano is the design mind behind HMH’s new Metropark hub, a hospitality-grade space built to reconnect staff with mission and calm the patient experience. He pushed for natural light, breathing-pattern architecture and a mezzanine meant for community — a building, as he puts it, “that breathes.”

Beverly Lynch
Manager
Inspira Health

Lynch, who has been with Inspira Health since 2002, has been instrumental in the development and expansion of behavioral health services for children and adolescents, including the successful launch of Inspira’s Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program in 2014 and the Autism Diagnostic Center in 2023.

Luke Margolis
Director, Corporate Communications
Atlantic Health

Margolis shapes Atlantic Health’s messaging across media, crisis communications, brand reputation and executive visibility in the public and among key leaders — and does it with a unique background. A former News 12 New Jersey reporter and senior communications official in the Senate Majority Office, he understands how news and information can be disseminated with maximum impact and influence.

Lynda Markoe
Chief People Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Markoe runs HR for a workforce of more than 40,000, leading the “One HR” transformation initiative that’s reshaping how the system’s people processes work as it grows.

Mike McCauley
Chief of Staff
Hackensack Meridian Health

McCauley keeps HMH’s sprawling set of simultaneous initiatives — inside the hospital walls and out — moving in the same direction, a job that helps explain why the system racks up so many accolades.

Warren Moore
Chief Operating Officer
Inspira Health

Moore, a recent appointee to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Economic and Community Advisory Council, runs operations across Inspira’s four hospitals and ambulatory network, including the ongoing $257 million expansion at Inspira Medical Center Mullica Hill.

Trish O’Keefe
President; Chief Nurse Executive
Morristown Medical Center; Atlantic Health System

O’Keefe leads a hospital that’s a perennial top finisher in the state — it ranked No. 2 in New Jersey and No. 9 in the New York City metro area in the latest U.S. News rankings, with top marks in orthopedics and gastroenterology.

Dr. David Perlin
Chief Scientific Officer
Center for Discovery and Innovation

Perlin has rapidly built CDI into a powerhouse of biomedical research, expanding to 33 laboratories and more than 200 scientists and staff in under five years. Backed by 126 grants and contracts, including 65 from the NIH, he’s positioned CDI as a national leader in infectious-disease science, diagnostics and translational innovation.

Frank Pipas
Chief Financial Officer
RWJBarnabas Health

Pipas is the senior finance executive for a system that delivers care to eight counties and roughly 5 million people, harmonizing financial processes across facilities to support RWJBH’s unified operating model.

Dr. Dustin Riccio
CEO
St. Joseph’s Health

Riccio, who holds both an M.D. and an MBA, keeps St. Joseph’s moving on two fronts at once — expanding technology and recently opening a new healing center — while staying rooted in the system’s Catholic, faith-based mission.

Tom Rubino
Chief Communications & Marketing Officer
Cooper University Health Care

Rubino, a Rutgers-trained attorney and former deputy mayor of Ewing Township, brings more than 30 years of communications and marketing experience to Cooper, where he oversees internal and external messaging, advertising, public relations, social media and physician outreach. Since joining in 2016, he’s helped position and protect the Cooper brand through integrated campaigns and crisis communications.

Ken Sable
Acute Care Hospital Division President
Hackensack Meridian Health

Sable is charged with setting current and long-range objectives for HMH’s acute-care footprint — aligning quality, access and growth strategies across the network — while continuing to champion smart systems, virtual care and ambulatory expansion to keep patients in the right setting at the right time.

Maureen Schneider
Interim President & CEO
CentraState Medical Center

Schneider, a nationally recognized nursing and operations leader, moved in 2026 from the presidency of Chilton Medical Center to serve as interim president and CEO at CentraState Medical Center. At Chilton, she led the hospital to Magnet nursing recognition and repeated Leapfrog “A” grades.

 

Stephanie Schwartz
President, Interim President
Overlook Medical Center, Chilton Medical Center

Schwartz has become one of the system’s most reliable operators — now leading both Overlook and, in 2026, returning as interim president of Chilton. Her tenure is marked by major facility upgrades, top-tier neuroscience outcomes, and a relentless focus on patient-centered care. 

 

Gloria Ann Seel
Assistant Vice President of Behavioral Health
AtlantiCare

Seel has reshaped how Atlantic County responds to mental illness and addiction. A systems-builder with deep clinical expertise, she drives evidence-based, cross-sector solutions that expand access, improve outcomes and reduce stigma. Her leadership, collaboration and credibility have transformed care delivery and saved lives across South Jersey.

Dr. Katherine Selman
Geriatric Emergency Department
Cooper University Hospital, Geriatric Emergency Department

Dr. Selman is transforming how older adults receive emergency care at Cooper. Under her leadership, Cooper University Hospital earned Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation from the American College of Emergency Physicians, recognizing the organization’s commitment to specialized, evidence-based care for seniors.

Dr. Alan Sickles
CEO
Saint Michael’s Medical Center

Sickles leads a safety-net teaching hospital marking 10 years of renewal, earning repeated Leapfrog “A” grades and a coveted Top Hospital designation. He has expanded advanced cardiac, stroke and infectious-disease programs while modernizing facilities, strengthening Saint Michael’s role as a vital lifeline for Newark.

Paul Simon
Communications Manager
Inspira Health

Simon has been the voice behind Inspira Health’s stories for more than three decades, managing media relations, messaging and crisis communications across the South Jersey network. A University of Maryland–trained journalist and former photojournalist, he brings a reporter’s eye to health care communications — documenting Inspira’s growth, major capital projects and community partnerships while helping leadership navigate high-stakes moments with clear, grounded public messaging.

Greg Sorkin
Chair of Emergency Medicine
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center

Sorkin oversees one of New Jersey’s busiest emergency departments, bringing more than two decades of frontline and leadership experience in high-acuity care, EMS oversight and emergency-preparedness. His work strengthens Bergen New Bridge’s expanding emergency-medicine capabilities and its role as a critical safety-net provider.

Mark Sparta
Chief Operating Officer
Hackensack Meridian Health

Sparta became COO in 2025, taking charge of operations across 18 hospitals, ambulatory services, real estate and system-wide clinical service lines. He is the former chief hospital executive at the state’s top hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center, where he helped drive development of the Helena Theurer Pavilion and expand urgent care and ambulatory footprints.

 

Dr. Lisa Tank
President and Chief Hospital Executive
Hackensack University Medical Center

Over nearly 25 years at Hackensack, she has served as chief medical officer and geriatrics chief, helping the hospital earn New Jersey’s No. 1 adult and children’s hospital rankings, a CMS 5-star rating and Leapfrog “Straight A” status, while pioneering delirium certification, telehealth programs and pandemic-era family-connection initiatives that drew national recognition.

Helene Wolk
Chief Operating Officer
Englewood Health

Wolk oversees enterprise-wide operations for the $1.4 billion health system. A driving force behind its growth, she has spent more than 15 years leading major initiatives that have expanded access to care, including launching Epic across the hospital and physician network and expanding community-based imaging, diagnostic and laboratory services.

Patrick Young
President of Population Health
Hackensack Meridian Health

Young leads HMH’s Population Health Division, which has grown its clinically integrated network from under 800 providers in 2015 to more than 4,000 today, spanning the Medicare Shared Savings program, managed care and insurance partnerships.