Dr. Audrey Gregory will take over as the president and CEO of AdventHealth’s North Florida Division when David Ottati leaves this post to head the West Division of the hospital system on October 25, 2021. The North Florida Division of AdventHealth’s system includes the counties of Volusia, Flagler, and Lake, and operates six hospitals in the area with a seventh under construction in Flagler county. She will report to Randy Haffner, the president and CEO of the Central Florida Division of AdventHealth. Dr. Gregory currently serves as CEO of Detroit Medical Center, which is part of Tenet Health in Michigan and as a top regional health care system operates eight hospitals and institutes.
Haffner said Dr. Gregory was highly respected in the field and had a passion for patient-centered care that “shines through from the moment you meet her.” He expressed his confidence that she will be a positive force in allowing AdventHealth to further its delivery of “faith-based, whole-person care in the communities we serve in Volusia, Flagler and Lake counties.”
Described as a “dynamic and transformational leader” by Terry Shaw, president and CEO of AdventHealth, as president and CEO of the North Florida Division, Dr. Gregory will provide oversight of operations that support total health care throughout the AdventHealth hospital system and help to create relationships with community members, consumers, and partners in the three counties. The system includes some 8,000 team members in the tri-county region.
Prior to her work at the Detroit Medical Center, Dr. Gregory was the market CEO and CEO for Memphis, Tennessee’s Saint Francis Hospital, which is also a part of Tenet Health. She has worked at the hospital for over 17 years and had a broad range of leadership roles, including chief nursing officer, chief operating officer, and CEO for Placentia-Linda Hospital in Southern California.
Dr. Gregory has received three Tenet Circle of Excellence Awards in recognition of her leadership ability. She was recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the top 25 “Minority Leaders in Healthcare” in 2020 and was named by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the “70 African-American Leaders in Health Care to Know.”
Dr. Gregory was born in Jamaica and attended St. Hugh’s High School for Girls where she displayed a talent for health care. She moved to the United States to attend college and earned a BA in nursing and an MA in health care administration at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Georgia. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in global leadership with a concentration in corporate and organizational management at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. She is a licensed registered nurse and worked for several years in Europe, as well as served as a civilian for the US Army where her health care skills gave her the flexibility to work during her husband’s 15-year career in the Army.
Commenting on her new appointment, Dr. Audrey Gregory said she was honored to join a faith-based health care system committed to providing equitable care with a focus on consumers. She added that she is looking forward to building relationships and partnerships with the system’s leaders, providers, and care teams and plans to “continue extending the healing ministry of Christ to our surrounding communities.”
Photo – AdventHealth
