Denny DeNarvaez
Margaret “Denny” DeNarvaez, the president and CEO of Wellmont Health System, has set a standard for innovative healthcare leadership. Caring for patients throughout the Tri-Cities region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, Wellmont has more than 1,250 beds and employs more than 7,000 caregivers and other staff.
Since joining the organization in August 2010, DeNarvaez has led Wellmont in developing a focused strategic direction for the system at all levels. Among other achievements, she created the vision and leadership model for a new physician organization that empowers physicians to set the direction for patient care, restructured the oncology service line into a unified program providing comprehensive, coordinated care across the region and led the system’s largest hospital to recognition as the best in the nation for interventional carotid care and one of Thomson Reuters’ 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals. She also launched Wellmont’s Healing Environment initiative to enhance the hospital experience for patients and visitors alike.
An accomplished executive with nearly 30 years’ experience, DeNarvaez previously served with the Sisters of Mercy as CEO for the East and West regions, including Oklahoma and St. Louis, as well as CEO for St. John’s Mercy Health Care, with hospitals and extensive operations in Missouri and Oklahoma. Under her leadership, St. John’s Mercy was named a “best place to work” by Modern Healthcare magazine.
Prior to leading the Mercy system, DeNarvaez was the president of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, the largest hospital in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and before that, CEO of Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
DeNarvaez graduated from Drake University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She is a certified public accountant and holds leadership certifications from the University of Michigan Business School in Ann Arbor and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. She received the Visionary Leadership Award from the Missouri Hospital Association in 2009 and was named one of the Top 25 most influential businesswomen by the St. Louis Business Journal in 2007.
