Johnese Spisso
President, UCLA Health; CEO, UCLA Hospital System; Associate Vice Chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences
UCLA Health
Johnese Spisso has been president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences since 2016. With 30 years of experience, she is a nationally recognized academic health care leader, overseeing operations of UCLA’s hospitals, clinics and the health system’s regional outreach strategy. Spisso led UCLA’s expansion to provide convenient access to care throughout Southern California, with more than 200 clinics recording more than 2.8 million outpatient visits in 2019.
Spisso also led the effort to accomplish essential clinical goals at UCLA Health: enhancing quality and safety of patient care, improving capacity and timely access to UCLA’s health care facilities and ensuring financial stability. Her background in nursing has provided her perspective in understanding the full continuum of care and the needs of patients and staff with both Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center earning the prestigious designation of excellence for its nursing programs as National Magnet Hospitals.
During her tenure at UCLA Health, she has made diversity a priority and hired more women, underrepresented minorities and LGBTQ leaders to her executive team. Spisso is also a leader in promoting LGBTQ health care at UCLA. She was instrumental in launching the LGBTQ Equitable Care Committee, which focused on patient access to care, quality of health care and workforce cultural competency issues. Under her leadership, UCLA Health was among the first health care systems in the country to fund an executive team position and office to advance health equity among all patient populations.
