Modern Healthcare Honors Three Leaders of National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives
News Release: May 5, 2008
CHICAGO – Three members of the National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives (NFLHE) Board of Directors were named to Modern Healthcare’s 2008 Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare. The 25 executives will be honored in a dinner and award presentation on June 18 in Chicago.
NFLHE board members Richard Cordova, Joxel Garcia and A. David Jimenez were honored as distinguished leaders who foster change and serve as role models in the industry.
“We congratulate our colleagues – Richard Cordova, Joxel Garcia and A. David Jimenez – in this well-deserved honor. We know from working with them that they are dedicated leaders who inspire others and strive to make our health care system inclusive so every patient can get the best quality care possible,” said NFLHE President Hank Hernandez, who is the CEO of Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso, TX.
NFLHE is a national organization that seeks to increase the representation of Latinos at the executive level of U.S. hospitals and health systems. NFLHE works toward building and promoting a network of future health care leaders and seeks to foster discussion with respect to health policy and research agenda affecting the U.S. Latino communities.
Based in Chicago, NFLHE is led by senior executive health care leaders in the U.S. whose vision is to be a voice for their experience and of the diverse communities they serve. As NFLHE embarks on its fourth year, Executive Director Angela Anderson and the board of directors are working toward building on members’ strengths and experiences as health care professionals and leaders who can guide mid-careerists; becoming a national voice and presence; and developing a Latino pipeline to programs and career opportunities.
Modern Healthcare’s second biennial listing of the Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare spotlights distinguished leaders who have a record of fostering change and growth inside and outside their organizations and of serving as a role model or mentor to others in the industry.
“As we become a more diverse nation, it’s critical that the executive suite of our health systems reflects that with an inclusive leadership at the top, thus helping to lessen health disparities for all Americans,” Anderson said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation’s population will be half-minority by 2050. NFLHE also aims to develop partnerships to promote educational and career opportunities for Latino professionals.
From Modern Healthcare, the Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare are:
A founding member of NFLHE, Cordova has been president and CEO of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles since April 2006. He also serves as board chairman of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management.
Before becoming CEO at Childrens, he was president and COO at the hospital, which treats some 62,000 patients in its emergency department and admits more than 11,000 children annually. In February, the hospital received magnet recognition for nursing excellence, a recognition awarded to only 5% of U.S. hospitals. Before joining Childrens, Cordova was president of the Southern California Region of the Kaiser Permanente Health Plan and Hospitals, overseeing 11 hospitals and a health plan.
Garcia recently left the NFLHE board to become a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services assistant secretary and medical director of the Public Health Service. Nominated by President Bush for the posts in January, Garcia was confirmed in April.
Garcia is also a U.S. representative on the World Health Organization’s executive board. Most recently he had been senior vice president and senior medical adviser to Maximus Federal Services, a publicly traded company that reviews denied appeals for Medicare managed-care claims. A physician trained in OB-GYN, Garcia was deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization and spent four years as commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Public Health.
A. David Jimenez is CEO of Catholic Healthcare Partners, based in Cincinnati, OH. There he oversees several system executives and all the system’s regional CEOs. Over his career, he has driven several major financial turnarounds at hospitals.
As CEO, Jimenez has shown his commitment to diversity by mentoring young minority health care leaders and helping to establish Catholic Healthcare Partners’ Diversity Health Fellowship program. He also helped to create the system’s Strategic Plan for Diversity and Inclusion, which aims to foster a culture of representation and inclusion throughout the system.
A complete list is available at www.modernhealthcare.com.
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