Emory Healthcare has announced plans to unify its leadership under a more streamlined structure. Effective July 1, 2025, Joon S. Lee, MD, chief executive officer of Emory Healthcare, will assume the expanded, integrated roles of executive vice president for health affairs of Emory University and vice chair of the Emory Healthcare Board of Directors, along with continuing his current position of CEO of Emory Healthcare.

Ravi Thadhani, MD, who has served as executive vice president for health affairs of Emory University and executive director of Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center since January 2023, will step down from his roles to pursue opportunities beyond Emory. He will remain an adjunct professor in Emory’s Department of Medicine.

Advancing Emory’s health enterprise

Thadhani has achieved remarkable milestones and measurable progress throughout his tenure at Emory. Under his leadership, Emory’s health sciences and health care system has sharpened its strategic focus, expanded access, strengthened financial resilience and embraced a culture of collaboration and inclusive excellence.

Key milestones during his term include: impressive national rankings for the Emory’s schools of medicine, nursing and public health; strategic investments in academic medicine including the “Hospital of the Future” at Emory Hillandale Hospital; the establishment of the Max Cooper Prize in Immunology; and enhancing philanthropic collaborations to advance care in cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurology.

Together with other Emory leaders, Thadhani stabilized Emory Healthcare’s finances, performing among the top decile of academic health systems.

Unified leadership with a forward focus

Lee joined Emory Healthcare as CEO in July 2023. In his newly expanded role of executive vice president for health affairs, Lee will oversee Emory’s academic health sciences component — the Woodruff Health Sciences Center — shaping the next era of research, training and health care delivery innovation. Founded in 1966, the Woodruff Health Sciences Center includes: Emory’s schools of medicine, nursing and public health; Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University; Emory National Primate Research Center; Emory Global Health Institute; Goizueta Institute @ Emory Brain Health; Emory Global Diabetes Research Center and Emory Healthcare.

A transformative leader with deep commitment to patients, providers, and communities, Lee will continue to lead Emory Healthcare, Georgia’s most comprehensive academic health system, with 29,500 employees and 11 hospitals. With a mission of improving lives and providing hope, Lee is committed to ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care focused on supporting the health and well-being of patients across the state.

“It is a privilege to lead this extraordinary institution at such a pivotal moment,” says Lee. “Together with our teams, we will elevate health across Georgia and far beyond — expanding discovery, delivering compassionate care and driving innovation that transforms lives.”