Chris Van Gorder, FACHE
President and CEO, Scripps Health
JOIN US AT PARTNERS’ 26TH ANNUAL VISION & EXCELLENCE IN HEALTHCARE LEADERSHIP TRIBUTE DINNER
THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2026
BEVERLY WILSHIRE HOTEL IN BEVERLY HILLS, CA.
6:00 to 9:00PM
Biography
As President and CEO of Scripps Health for the past 25 years, Chris Van Gorder has now successfully led the organization through a quarter of its 100-year history.
Board certified in health care management and an American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Fellow, Van Gorder leads all functions of the San Diego based integrated health system, including its five acute-care hospital campuses, and more than 30 outpatient and specialty centers, including the Prebys Cardiovascular Institute and the Scripps Cancer Center.
Van Gorder’s path to health care leadership was unconventional. A former police officer injured in the line of duty, his journey began as a hospital patient. Following a complex and lengthy recovery, he secured a job at the hospital where he had received his care, continued his health care management education and rose to new levels of responsibility.
More than 18,000 employees and 3,500 affiliated physicians provide care at Scripps, which has made Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list for 18 years and was recently recognized again by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top five medium sized health systems in the nation.
Among his accomplishments, Van Gorder led a financial and cultural turnaround, significantly expanded the Scripps’ integrated health system, established a dyad leadership model where administrators and physicians co-lead health care operations, and created an innovative Model Care program, empowering staff and physicians to continuously redesign patient care.
Van Gorder is also known for his community contributions. He recently retired as Reserve Assistant Sheriff for San Diego County, and last year spearheaded the formation of San Diego’s Hospital Workplace Violence Taskforce, bringing together local law enforcement, the District Attorney’s office and other San Diego health system leaders to reduce incidents of violence against health care workers. In past years he also led medical relief missions following Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Van Gorder received his master’s degree in public/health services administration at the University of Southern California, completed the Wharton System CEO Program at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Los Angeles. His first book – The Front-Line Leader: Building a High Performance Organization from the Ground Up – was published in November 2014.
