Newswise — The University of Chicago Medicine announced a series of leadership promotions this spring as part of the growing academic health system’s efforts to transform and advance its patient care and the consumer experience and improve its processes to deliver high-quality care.

The changes come as UChicago Medicine continues to expand its footprint across the Chicagoland region.

In the past year, the health system broke ground to build the state’s first and only standalone structure dedicated to cancer care and research, in addition to opening a new location in Northbrook for urogynecology and women’s health care, as well as two new primary care locations in Cottage Grove and Kenwood.

In April, UChicago Medicine opened a new multispecialty care center in Northwest Indiana. The Crown Point facility houses one of only two comprehensive cancer centers in Indiana. Last year, the health system also acquired four regional oncology centers from Michiana Hematology Oncology.

Among the new changes in leadership:

Emily Chase, PhD, RN, NE-BC, FACHE

Executive Vice President and UCMC Chief Operating Officer

Emily Chase has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the University of Chicago Medical Center, the hub of the University of Chicago health system.

Chase, who joined the organization in 2011, has served as UCMC’s Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Vice President of Patient Care Services since 2020. From June 2022 until March 2023, she was also Interim President and CEO at UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey. Chase previously worked as Vice President of UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital.

In her new role, Chase will continue to oversee many clinical functions, including nursing, but from a different vantage point in the organization.

Chase earned her doctorate in nursing from the University of Illinois Chicago and received a bachelor of science in nursing from St. Mary’s College in Indiana.

Alesia Coe, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE

Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer

Alesia Coe has been named UCMC’s Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, replacing Chase.

Coe was previously Vice President for Adult Inpatient/Emergency Services and Associate Chief Nursing Officer at UChicago Medicine, where she directed the nursing staff and programs for the adult inpatient units in medicine, surgery, cardiology, orthopaedics, neurology, dialysis, multispecialty areas and emergency services.

She joined UChicago Medicine in 2018 as Associate Chief Nursing Officer and Executive Director of Adult Inpatient Hospitals. Prior to her work at the academic health system, Coe was System Associate Nurse Executive, Inpatient Services for Cook County Health.

In 2022, Coe received a fellowship from the Carol Emmott Foundation, which recognizes women making an impact as healthcare executives.

Coe earned her undergraduate and graduate nursing degrees from Saint Xavier University and her doctorate in nursing from the University of Alabama.

Deval Daily

Chief Operational Transformation Officer

Deval Daily has joined UChicago Medicine as the health system's Chief Operational Transformation Officer, working to oversee the Operational Excellence and Quality Performance Improvement teams. She will also collaborate with leaders across the health system on operational integration and strategic initiatives.

Daily joins UChicago Medicine from Rush University Medical Center, where she was Chief Administrative Officer for multiple service lines and was most recently its Vice President of Operational Excellence.

As a healthcare executive with more than a decade of progressive experience in operations and service line development, Daily previously managed multiple, complex departments and is skilled at enhancing performance, reducing costs, optimizing revenue capture, increasing productivity and more.

Daily earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her master of science in health system management from Rush University.