Featured Team Members - Leadership

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  Deborah A. Berini, MHA

  President, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

  717-531-8802

  Deborah Berini is president of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where she leads the Medical Center on its mission of delivering leading-edge care locally and setting the standard for operational excellence across the system.

  Prior to joining the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in 2018, Berini was chief operating officer at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Health System, where she provided leadership and strategic direction for the school’s academic health system. During her tenure, the health system rose in rank from No. 76 to No. 9 nationally in Vizient, an organization that analyzes quality and safety data for university health systems.

  Berini led the operational transformation and growth of UTMB Health System from a single campus academic medical center to a regional health system. She championed patient- and family-centered care by engaging patients in the design of new facilities, operational processes and the education of future providers in partnership with the Department of Medicine.

  Previously, Berini held a variety of leadership positions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

  She earned her master’s in health administration from Washington University School of Medicine and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Drury College.

  Biography
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  Judy Himes, MSN, RN, NE-BC

  Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

  717-531-8405

  Judy Himes is senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

  She has served as director of nursing for the Medical Center since 2005. Himes has built a reputation for collaboration among her nursing peers and with physicians and other members of the care team. She is known for her mentorship, coaching and professional development of staff nurses and nurse managers.

  Himes has more than two decades of senior nursing leadership experience at hospitals and health systems in the central Pennsylvania region, including the Lebanon VA Medical Center, where she served as associate chief of the nursing service for Acute Care/Specialty Services.

  Prior to that role, Himes was vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Pinnacle Health System and served as director of nursing operations at PinnacleHealth.

  She obtained her Master of Science in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and her Bachelor of Science in nursing from the Penn State. Himes is an active member of the Penn State College of Nursing Advisory and Development Board.

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  Biography
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  Sherri Luchs, MHA

  Interim Vice President of Operational Excellence, Penn State Health

  717-531-5753

  As interim vice president of operational excellence, Sherri Luchs continues the work to establish operational excellence, a daily operating system and readiness at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The foundational principles and methods include Lean Six Sigma, leader standard work, change management, situational awareness and an engaged, problem-solving workforce. Luchs joined the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in 1991. She is also a registered nurse and member of the Pennsylvania Board of Nursing.

  A Six Sigma Master Black Belt, she mentors senior leaders and middle managers in Lean Six Sigma methodologies and principles of operational excellence. She also develops and teaches second- and fourth-year medical students for the Health System Sciences course at Penn State College of Medicine.

  Luchs began her career her as a pediatric nurse and has held various staff nurse and manager positions. She became the director of pediatric ambulatory care for Hershey Medical Center’s University Physicians Group (now Penn State Health Medical Group) and served on the steering committee for the design and construction of Penn State Cancer Institute and Penn State Children’s Hospital.

  Luchs earned a Master of Health Administration from Penn State Harrisburg, while also serving as administrator and chief administrative officer at the University Physicians Group. She has a bachelor’s in nursing from Immaculata University and an associate degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh.

  Biography