DAYTON — Chad Whelan, MD, has been named as the first physician to serve as president of Miami Valley Hospital, as well as the first Premier Health executive to hold a dual role as system chief operating officer. His appointment is effective Aug. 7.

Dr. Whelan brings to Premier Health decades of progressive hospital and health care leadership and clinical experience in academic medical centers and prominent health systems across the United States, including Banner Health, Loyola University Health, and the University of Chicago Medicine. He is an innovative physician executive with extensive operations leadership experience across the care continuum in complex health systems. Most recently, he served as strategic advisor to University of Arizona Health Sciences, working closely with the President of the University of Arizona and the Senior Vice President of Health Sciences Division. His appointment follows a national search and review of dozens of candidates.

“Chad brings a depth and breadth of experience that complements Premier Health’s strategic plan in the areas of academics, operational excellence, and partnerships,” said Michael C. Riordan, president and CEO, Premier Health. “I look forward to welcoming him back to the Midwest. I’m confident Chad will be a great fit within Premier Health’s culture and will advance our organizational goals and mission to improve the health of the communities we serve.”

“This dual role gives me both the opportunity to have a broad impact across the continuum of health care and bring to bear my experience in academic medicine, while still keeping me connected to the bedside and our front lines of care as Miami Valley Hospital president,” Dr. Whelan said. “Health care is ultimately local, so Premier Health’s role as a regional system that is truly of and for the community which it serves has great appeal to me and speaks to how I’d like to make an impact. My family and I are very much looking forward to learning about Dayton and Southwest Ohio, immersing ourselves in the community, and making it our home.”

Dr. Whelan succeeds Barbara Johnson, who is retiring as chief operating officer after 20 years of dedicated service to the health system. For the past year, Johnson also has been overseeing Miami Valley Hospital as interim president.

“Barb has been an integral and trailblazing member of our system’s leadership team,” Riordan said. “Without her leadership and steady hand, we would not recognize Premier Health as it is today. During Barb’s tenure, she spearheaded many consequential initiatives, successfully navigated challenging market conditions, and mentored and inspired countless employees along the way. Her dedication to our values and mission, her humility, and her support of her peers and her various teams have set a remarkable example for all of us.”

Johnson has played a key long-term role in establishing Premier Health as a community leader in diversity and inclusion; in fact, the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce renamed its annual diversity and inclusion award in honor of the health system. In 2020, Barb was named a Modern Healthcare Minority Leader to Watch, and the National Conference for Community & Justice of Greater Dayton in 2022 celebrated her as its Humanitarian Honoree. She co-chaired Premier Health’s African-American Wellness Walk in 2019. She has served the region and state in many ways, including on the Governor’s Executive Workforce Board.

Dr. Whelan has extensive leadership in partnerships between academics and the health care delivery system, most recently in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. He has served as both CEO of Banner-University Medicine Tucson, where he led efforts to integrate health care delivery systems, and has overseen Banner Health’s academic division and the 1,000 faculty member Banner University Medical Group. He previously served as president of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., where he oversaw several significant operational excellence initiatives to enhance performance across the academic medical center continuum.

Dr. Whelan earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota, where he was chief resident. He holds a master’s degree in health services administration in public health and business administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He has served as a professor of medicine, teaching physician residents and medical students, publishing multiple academic papers, and serving on numerous national committees, including currently as treasurer for the Society of Hospital Medicine Board of Directors.

Dr. Whelan, who grew up in the Chicago area and has mostly lived in the Midwest, will be relocating to the Miami Valley area from Tucson, Arizona, with his wife, Nicole, and their family.