As of September 2016, 34 percent of the physicians in the United States were female, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and only a percentage of those physicians hold leadership positions.
Here is a list of female physicians who have risen to powerful positions within hospitals, health systems and medical societies.
Contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com with questions or comments about this list.
Neelum T. Aggarwal, MD. Rush University Medical Center (Chicago). Dr. Aggarwal is the vice chair of the AMA's Women Physicians Section Governing Council. She is the director of research at the Rush Heart Center for Women at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and previously was on the AMA Commission to End Health Disparities.
Susan R. Bailey, MD. Fort Worth (Texas) Allergy and Asthma Associates. Dr. Bailey is the speaker of the AMA House of Delegates. She has previous experience as chair of the AMA Council on Medical Education and is a past president of the Texas medical Association.
Elaine Batchlor, MD. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (Los Angeles). Dr. Batchlor became CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in August 2012. She has previous experience on the executive leadership for the L.A. Care Health Plan.
Amy Beiter, MD. Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital (Tucson, Ariz.). Dr. Beiter was named president and CEO of Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital in October 2012. She previously served as CMO of the hospital and is a member of the American College of Physician Executives.
Anne Boland Docimo, MD. Jefferson Health System (Philadelphia). Dr. Boland is the executive vice president and CMO of Jefferson Health System and president of Jefferson University Physicians. She has previous experience as CMO of UMPC Health Plan and senior medical director for the hospital division of UPMC in Pittsburgh.
Amalia Cochran, MD. University of Utah (Salt Lake City). Dr. Cochran is the vice chair of education and professionalism at the University of Utah department of surgery and immediate past president of the Association of Women Surgeons. She serves as the treasurer of the Association of Surgical Education and serves on the American College of Surgeons board of governors and health policy advocacy group.
Joanne Conroy, MD. Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (Burlington, Mass.). Dr. Conroy was named CEO of Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in June 2014. She has previous experience as the chief healthcare officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Jessica Donnington, MD. NYU Langone Medical Center (New York City). Dr. Donnington is the president of Women in Thoracic Surgery. She is also associate director of the thoracic surgery residency program at NYU Langone, chief of the thoracic surgery service at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in New York City and director of the thoracic translational research laboratory.
Susan Ehrlich, MD. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Dr. Ehrlich held a variety of roles at the San Mateo (Calif.) Medical Center over the course of nearly 14 years before becoming CEO of Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in April 2016.
Ann Errichetti, MD. Presence Health (Chicago). Dr. Errichetti is chief operations and academic officer at Presence Health. She has previous experience as CEO of St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, N.Y., and Albany Memorial Hospital. Her early career also includes time as president of Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Ill.
Melinda Estes, MD. Saint Luke's Health System (Kansas City, Mo.). Dr. Estes, a board-certified neurologist and neuropathologist, became president and CEO of Saint Luke's Health System in September 2011. Previously, she served as president and CEO of Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., for eight years and as CEO of Cleveland Clinic Florida for two years.
Lisa E. Harris, MD. Eskenazi Health (Indianapolis). Dr. Harris is the CEO of Eskenazi Health and a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis.
Margot Hartmann, MD, PhD. Nantucket (Mass.) Cottage Hospital. Dr. Hartmann is president CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, a position she's held since October 2010. She is board certified in internal medicine.
Lynda Kabbash, MD. Atrius Health (Boston). Dr. Kabbash is the chair and member-at-large of the AMA's Women Physician's Section Governing Council. She is an allergist at New England Baptist Hospital and Atrius Health, both in Boston, and president of the Norfolk District Medical Society.
Claudette M. Lajam, MD. NYU Langone Medical Center (New York City). Dr. Lajam is the vice president of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society. She is an assistant professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center and she has a special interest in total joint replacement.
Christine Laronga, MD. Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Fla.). Dr. Laronga is president of the Association of Women Surgeons. She is a board-certified general surgeon and a senior member of the department of women's oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center. She is the Florida State chair for the Commission on Cancer.
Lisa L. Lattanza, MD. UCSF Medical Center. Dr. Lattanza is the chief of hand, elbow and upper extremity surgery at UCSF and president of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society. She is the co-founder and president of The Perry Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides experience and exposure in orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering for female high school students and female first and second year medical students.
Jennifer Lawton, MD. Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore). Dr. Lawton is the past president of Women in Thoracic Surgery. She is the associate chief of the division of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins and has received the Thoracic Foundation for Research and Education's Nina Starr Braunwald Career Development Award.
Vivian S. Lee, MD, PhD. University of Utah Health Care (Salt Lake City). Dr. Lee is the CEO of the University of Utah Health Care and senior vice president of University Health Sciences. She also serves as dean of the University of Utah School of Medicine and sits on the Council of Councils of the National Institutes of Health.
Ana Lopes, MD. Providence Health & Services Southern California (Redondo Beach, Calif.). Dr. Lopes is the president-elect of the Association of Black Women Physicians. She is a family physician at Providence Health & Services Southern California and affiliated with Facey Medical Group in Canyon County, Calif.
Barbara L. McAneny, MD. New Mexico Cancer Center (Albuquerque). Dr. McAneny is the CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center and member of the AMA board of trustees. She is the president of the New Mexico Medical Society and she chairs the board of the National Cancer Care Alliance.
Sonia Mehta, MD. Loretto Hospital (Chicago). Dr. Mehta became CMO and CEO of Loretto Hospital in November 2012. She previously served as president and CEO of Springfield, Ill.-based Hospital Sisters Health System Medical Group.
Redonda Miller, MD. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore). Dr. Miller is the first female president of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She became president in May 2016 after serving as vice president of medical affairs at the hospital and senior vice president of medical affairs for Johns Hopkins Health System.
Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD. Brigham and Women's Health Care (Boston). Dr. Nabel became president of Boston-based Brigham and Women's Health Care, which includes Brigham and Women's and Faulkner Hospitals, in January 2010. She was appointed to the NFL's chief health and medical advisor in 2015.
Janice Nevin, MD. Christiana Care Health System (Wilmington, Del.). Dr. Nevin was appointed president and CEO of Christiana Care Health System in 2014. She joined the health system in 2002 and previously served as the CMO, chief patient safety officer and chair of family and community medicine.
Mary I. O'Connor, MD. Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital. Dr. O'Connor became the inaugural director of the Musculoskeletal Center at Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital in May 2015. Her previous experience includes time as the medical director of the Mayo Clinic Integrity and Compliance Office in Rochester, Minn., and she was chair of the orthopedic surgery department at Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville, Fla., location.
Sareh Parangi, MD. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston). Dr. Paragi is an endocrine surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and vice president of the Association of Women Surgeons. She is the director of the MGH Thyroid Cancer Research Laboratory and directs the MGH endocrine surgery fellowship.
Heidi Prather, DO. Washington University Orthopedics (St. Louis). Dr. Prather became the first female president of the North American Spine Society in 2014. She currently serves as the vice chair of the department of orthopedic surgery and chief of the section of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Washington University Orthopedics.
Marsha D. Rappley, MD. Vice President of Virginia Commonwealth University Health Sciences and CEO of VCU Health System (Richmond). Dr. Rappley became vice president of health sciences and CEO of the VCU Health System in August 2015. She has previous experience as the chair of the board of directors for the Association of American Medical Colleges and chair of the FDA's pediatric advisory committee.
Alice Tolbert Coombs, MD. South Shore Anesthesia Associates (Weymouth, Mass.). Dr. Coombs is the president of the New England Medical Association and member-at-large of the AMA's Women Physicians Section Governing Council. She is a critical care specialist at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., and practices with South Shore Anesthesia Associates.
Glenna Tolbert, MD. Tolbert Center for Rehabilitation and Wellness (Encino, Calif.). Dr. Tolbert is the immediate past president of the Association of Black Women Physicians. Before she founded the Tolbert Center, Dr. Tolbert was the chief of the adult brain injury service in the neuro-trauma division at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center.
Georgia Tuttle, MD. Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital (Lebanon, N.H.). Dr. Tuttle is a member of the AMA board of trustees and was the first woman elected president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. She is the AMA's representative on the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement Foundation Board.
Valencia Walker, MD. UCLA Health. Dr. Walker is the president of the Association of Black Women Physicians. She practices neonatal-perinatal medicine at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA and Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center.
Kristy Weber, MD. Penn Medicine (Philadelphia). Dr. Weber is the immediate past president of the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society. She is also the chief of orthopedic oncology at Penn Medicine, vice-chair of faculty affairs in the department of orthopedic surgery and director of the sarcoma program at the Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
Penny Wheeler, MD. President and CEO of Allina Health (Minneapolis). Dr. Wheeler heads up Allina Health, a system spanning 13 hospitals and 61 clinics. She previously led the system's quality and value strategy as chief clinical officer and served on the Allina Health board.
Ginger Williams, MD. President and CEO of Oaklawn Hospital (Marshall, Mich.). Dr. Williams served as CMO of Oaklawn Hospital and medical director of the emergency department before becoming president and CEO in 2013. She is an emergency medicine physician by training.