East Bay’s LifeLong Medical Care Appoints Transformative Healthcare Leader Who Began Career as Nurse New CEO
July 17 2024 - 5:57PM
The Board of Directors of LifeLong Medical Care announced the
selection of Ms. Cecilia Aviles, MBA, BSN, RN, as its new Chief
Executive Officer. Her start date is August 5th.
In a letter to LifeLong staff announcing the news, Board Chair
John L. Jenkins said, “Cecilia combines strategic and operational
expertise with empathy and passion. She has a record of boldly
reimagining the ways in which health systems operate to make better
health even more accessible. The Board looks forward to
collaborating with her to continue providing high quality
healthcare to our community.”
Current CEO David B. Vliet announced his retirement from the
position last year in order to pursue a long-held dream of
establishing a nonprofit mobile health and tropical medicine
outreach in Guatemala.
Aviles has worked for more than 20 years transforming healthcare
operations and clinical services. Over the last decade she held a
variety of operational roles with Sutter Health, a multi-state,
integrated health system with 24 acute care hospitals and 200+
clinics in urban and rural communities.
Since 2018 she served as Operations Executive for Sutter Health
Bay Area Medical Foundation/Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Overseeing the system’s largest ambulatory division serving 350,000
patients, she led 2,400+ staff and 750+ clinicians through
organizational transformations including rollouts of new services
and shifts in healthcare delivery models. Her achievements include
integrating five newly acquired specialty care centers into the
organization and developing the program that produced the highest
possible patient experience scores, steering Sutter Health to two
Integrated Health Care Association awards.
Aviles is thrilled to be joining LifeLong Medical Care. “Leading
an organization with such a rich legacy of service is a profound
honor, and I am inspired by the shared values and commitment to
excellence that define LifeLong’s team. Starting my healthcare
journey as a trauma nurse taught me that patients are our ‘why.’ As
I transitioned into leadership roles to improve patient experience,
access to care and operations, patients’ needs remained my guiding
principle,” she said. She plans to meet employees in the places
where LifeLong delivers care -- its health centers, mobile vans and
supportive housing sites -- in her first 90 days.
Prior to joining Sutter Health, Aviles developed a
high-performing cardiovascular service at St. Mary’s Medical Center
in San Francisco. Previously, she served in administrative roles at
Kaiser Permanente’s Medical Group in Oakland, Richmond and Redwood
City. With Kaiser she ultimately led 600+ staff in all clinical and
non-clinical departments from primary care and medical/surgical to
technology. Her early career experiences as a registered nurse were
in the emergency room, operating room and trauma intensive care
unit.
A native San Franciscan and fluent Spanish speaker, Ms. Aviles
earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from San Francisco State
University and her Master of Business Administration from
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
ABOUT-- Established in 1976, LifeLong Medical
Care (https://lifelongmedical.org) is a non-profit Federally
Qualified Health Center (FQHC) providing medical, dental, mental
health and urgent care to underserved communities in Contra Costa
and Alameda Counties in San Francisco’s East Bay region.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f511bb83-c9df-449d-a6c1-bc7363a2f635
Media Contact: Sylvia Hacaj, Communications Dir.
510-981-4183, shacaj@lifelongmedical.org