Two Alumni Ranked in Most Influential People in Healthcare List

Dec. 12, 2014

Two alumni from the College of Education and Human Development have recently been ranked as one of the Modern Healthcare Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare for 2014.  Lloyd Dean (MA ’78, Educational Leadership) and Anthony Tersigni (Ed.D. ’92, Educational Leadership) are ranked in the top 25 among very good company.  Other notable’s on the list include Health and Human Services Secretary Slyvia Mathews Burwell, House Speaker John Boehner, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg, and President Barak Obama.

 Anthony Tersigni

Educational leadership alumnus, Anthony Tersigni, is president and CEO of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health care system, with more than 113,000 associates serving in some 500 locations throughout the United States. Tersigni became COO of Ascension Health in 2000 and assumed his current position four years later.  Based in St. Louis, Mo, Ascension Health is the third largest health system in the country in terms of revenue and prides itself on providing quality care to all, with special attention to the poor and vulnerable. He has been named one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare since 2006 and serves in leadership positions on several boards, including as chair of the Healthcare Leadership Council in Washington, DC.

Lloyd Dean

Ranked as No. 21 on the list is Lloyd Dean, CEO of San Francisco-based Dignity Health. He’s friendly with the President of the United States—and with the President of the San Francisco Giants. He is responsible for a complete fiscal turnaround of his company, sits on the board of Wells Fargo—and he’s a Bronco. Although he says he has no interest in it—there were rumors of Dean becoming one of Obama’s second term Cabinet members. It wasn’t always like that. He excelled at WMU and became a teacher when he graduated, junior high and an occasional communication course at WMU. It was at a WMU event that Dean mingled with corporate America and met a top executive at Upjohn. His decision to leave teaching was difficult, but he left to become an assistant regional manager at Upjohn and eventually rose to Executive Vice President for the entire company. Eight years later he took an opportunity to turn around a failing health care system—and succeeded with Dignity Health.