PHILADELPHIA— Alicia Gresham has been named chief executive officer of Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH), effective January 2, 2024. Gresham currently serves as senior vice president and COO of Network Operations at Mount Sinai Health System in New York and has nearly three decades of executive leadership experience in health care.
During her time at Mount Saini, Gresham led the expansion of the health system’s ambulatory practices across the five boroughs of New York, Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey, and Florida. Her work has been instrumental in increasing practice revenues, improving patient access, and integrating practices into a unified electronic health record. She was also a key player in establishing strong partnerships with affiliate hospitals and physician groups across the region.
Gresham’s appointment at PAH marks a return to Penn Medicine, where she previously led special projects for the department of Medicine and later served as the director of Access and Operations for the Scheie Eye Institute. After her posts at Penn Medicine, she served as senior director of Specialty Care and Primary Care for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) where she led the development and execution of expanding CHOP’s network practices in the greater Philadelphia region. At Pennsylvania Hospital, she succeeds Theresa Larivee, who was named Chief Business Officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) in January 2023, following eight years as PAH’S CEO.
“Alicia has deep strategic, operations, and financial acumen, which she has leveraged to build well-integrated networks for large academic health systems,” said Michele Volpe, UPHS Chief Operating Officer. “I am thrilled to welcome her back to Penn Medicine, where she will build upon Pennsylvania Hospital’s plans for growth with a continued focus on the needs of the community we serve and our exceptionally talented workforce.”
PAH is the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond. Over its 270 years in operation, PAH has earned national recognition for programs such as orthopaedics, neurosurgery, obstetrics and high-risk maternal and fetal services, neonatology and behavioral health. The campus also includes specialty treatment centers such as the Center for Transfusion-Free Medicine, and the Penn Gamma Knife Center. Home to 525 licensed inpatient beds, PAH saw 303,368 outpatient visits, 45,352 emergency department visits, and 5,537 births in fiscal year 2022.
“As an institution that has played a major role in the story of American medicine since even before the nation’s founding, Pennsylvania Hospital in built on the values of community, tradition, and innovation,” said UPHS CEO Kevin B. Mahoney. “Alicia’s experience both within Penn Medicine and at other large academic health systems places her in the unique position to not only support Penn Medicine’s strengths and values, but also to bring fresh ideas to continue Pennsylvania Hospital’s longstanding evolution and continuous pursuit of excellence.”
Gresham holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Healthcare Finance from the Fox School of Business at Temple University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Daniel Wilson, MBA, RN, COO of Pennsylvania Hospital, will continue to serve as acting CEO during the transition period before Gresham begins her new role.
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation’s top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.
