Kisha Hortman Hawthorne, Ph.D.

Dr. Hawthorne is the Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Care Network at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In this capacity, she provides strategic leadership of CHOP Care Network primary care, specialty care, urgent care, hospital affiliate and behavioral health services. The CHOP Care Network consists of 11 regional outpatient specialty care centers, 31 regional primary practices, four urgent care centers, multiple hospital affiliate partnerships and inpatient behavioral health services. CHOP Care Network has more than 1,150 FTEs, more than 1.4 million outpatient visits annually and serves patients and families in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In addition, she has matrix management of the Care Network Associate Chief Medical Officer and employed physicians.

With a healthcare career spanning more than 20 years, Dr. Hawthorne has extensive experience in hospital operations, information services, revenue cycle and project management. As COO of the CHOP Care Network, Dr. Hawthorne, manages net operating revenue of $202M across five profit & loss service lines. She leads network growth and business development strategy, along with establishing strategic alliances with regional healthcare systems including Penn Medicine, Virtual Health, and Atlanticare Health System. She champions diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives focusing on employee recruitment, development, and retention, as well as community programming promoting health equity and access to services.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Hawthorne served as CHOP’s SVP and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for seven years. As CIO, she was responsible for strategic leadership of the Information Services (IS) department, managing a $50 million capital budget, a project portfolio of more than 90 large and mid-size projects, and 550 full time staff members,
ensuring organizational information security and protection of patient and family health data.

As an executive leader, Dr. Hawthorne serves on various CHOP committees including Strategic Growth, Ethics and Patient Safety Executive committee. For ten years, she served as an executive sponsor for the Multicultural Professionals Network (MPN), one of CHOP’s Employee Resource Groups (ERG). Dr. Hawthorne is often a guest speaker for CHOP programs and symposia as well as many external professional, educational and civic organizations.

Dr. Hawthorne is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including being named a winner for the 2020 Minority Business Leader Awards by the Philadelphia Business Journal. She was also nominated for the 2021 and 2020 Philadelphia CIO of the Year ORBIE Awards.

Dr. Hawthorne holds a PhD in Information Studies from Drexel University’s College of Computing and Informatics (CCI). She is a graduate of Florida A&M University, University of Minnesota, and St. Thomas University (St. Paul, MN). She presently serves on the University City Science Center Board, Drexel’s College of Computing & Informatics Dean’s Executive Advisory Council Board and has been elected as a member of the Drexel’s Board of Trustees, beginning in December 2022. Active in professional and civic organizations, Dr. Hawthorne is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and The Links Incorporated.