Karen Teitelbaum
MHA Executive in Residence
Health Policy and Administration
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About
An experienced executive, Karen has spent her career in leadership positions with some of the most industry-challenged healthcare delivery organizations. Experienced in business development, strategy, turnaround, and advocacy, Karen is a nationally recognized leader focused on ensuring corporate viability and growth in the health services arena.
As President/ Chief Executive Officer of Sinai Health System, Chicago’s largest private healthcare system serving vulnerable communities, and with over $1 billion of revenues, Karen had oversight of a successful turnaround of financial, philanthropic, and operational performance. Results to date show a year-over-year improvement in the bottom line, taking the organization from a loss of $42 million to a surplus of $10.7 million, improved EBIDA from a negative $14.8 million to a positive $33.8 million and increased philanthropic giving from $2.3 million annually to $10.9 million. During this time, she recruited, retained, and developed a high-performing, diverse executive team of nationally recognized professionals.
Karen previously served as the Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer at Sinai, overseeing the successful acquisition and integration into the System of a private hospital and the enhancement of quality/safety initiatives.
Karen is an influential participant in state and national legislative policy-making agendas, working with legislators of both the State and Congress. She has formed strategic relationships with non-healthcare partners, including a major academic institution and a real estate development firm, in order to train the next generation of professionals and create assets in urban areas.
Karen became an entrepreneur early in her career. After purchasing the rehabilitation services firm in which she held a leadership role, she grew the company over the next four years into the largest of its kind in metropolitan Chicago before selling it to a publicly traded firm. Following the sale of her company, Karen held increasingly responsible positions in nonprofit and for-profit companies, including a global life-sciences corporation.
Karen serves on civic, state, and national boards, including America’s Essential Hospitals (Chair, Board Equity Task Force), the Chicago-Cook County Innovation Workforce Development Board as a mayoral appointee, and the University of Illinois at Chicago MHA Advisory Board, becoming the program’s first Executive in Residence for the MHA program. A member of the Chicago Network, she has served on both Planning and the Healthcare Sector Nominating Committees, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Economic Club of Chicago, and Kellogg Executive Women’s Network.
Awards and recognition include: “One of 10 Business Leaders to Watch in 2020” by the Chicago Tribune, twice named to Crain’s Chicago Business “Notable Women in Chicago Healthcare” list, the Weizmann Institute “Women of Science” award, and a recipient of the National Medical Fellowship “Leadership in Healthcare” award. She is a frequently requested national speaker, world traveler, avid bicyclist, and cook.