Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital Selects New Leaders

Los Angeles (July 2, 2021) –“Joanne brings to her new role a breadth of institutional knowledge backed by years of clinical leadership experience,” said Jeff Smith, MD, JD, MMM, executive vice president of hospital operations and chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai. “Under her oversight, our hospital has seen remarkable progress in the delivery of patient care, quality of service, business performance and patient satisfaction.”

Laguna-Kennedy will see the hospital through a period of transition as work begins on a new, state-of-the-art hospital that will replace the current 50-year-old facility in Marina del Rey. Construction on the facility is expected to be complete in 2026.

Joining Laguna-Kennedy on the leadership team are Danielle Gabele, RN, MSN, CCRN, CENP, who is taking on Laguna-Kennedy’s prior role of chief nursing officer, and Steven M. Krems, MD, who is the new chief medical officer of the hospital.

“These appointments represent an important and welcome inflection point following a challenging year as we continue to evolve our delivery of outstanding patient care to our community,” Smith said.

Laguna-Kennedy has worked for Cedars-Sinai for 10 years, including as Executive Director of Nursing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In 2018, Laguna-Kennedy joined Cedars-Sinai Mariana del Rey Hospital as vice president of hospital operations and chief nursing officer of the hospital.

Before joining Cedars-Sinai, Laguna-Kennedy served as Director of the Neurosurgery/Stroke Medical Unit for North Florida Regional Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida. She also worked as a public health nurse for the Iron County Health Department in Hurley, Wisconsin, and as a sexual assault nurse examiner for the Domestic Violence Escape Program in Ironwood, Michigan.

Gabele has worked at Cedars-Sinai for 11 years. Prior to joining the Marina del Rey Hospital team in 2019, she was the associate director for an inpatient unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Krems has been a member of the Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Medical Executive Committee for more than 25 years, and served as chief of staff for two elected terms. A practicing internist with the Cedars-Sinai Medical Group, Krems has been the team physician for the Los Angeles Clippers since 1993.

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Women in Leadership at Cedars-Sinai

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