Biography

Dr. Hawthorne is the Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Care Network/Behavioral Health Services at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). In this capacity, she serves as the operational and strategic leader of CHOP’s Care Network/Behavioral Health Services consisting of 31 regional primary care centers, 15 regional outpatient specialty care centers, four urgent care centers, four behavioral health centers, and eight hospital affiliate partnerships. With a healthcare career spanning more than 20 years, Dr. Hawthorne has extensive experience in hospital operations, revenue cycle and project management. In addition, she possesses expertise in strategic planning, comprehensive business plan development, information services, complex information technology projects, and budget management. As COO of the CHOP Care Network/Behavioral Health Services, Dr. Hawthorne manages a net operating revenue of $202 million across five profit & loss service lines. She leads network growth and business development strategy, along with establishing strategic alliances with regional healthcare systems including Penn Medicine, Virtual Health and Atlanticare Health System. She champions diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives focusing on employee recruitment, development and retention, as well as community programming promoting health equity and access to services. Prior to her current role, Dr. Hawthorne served as CHOP’s SVP and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for seven years. As CIO, she was responsible for strategic leadership of the Information Services (IS) department, managing a $50 million capital budget, a project portfolio of more than 90 large and mid-size projects, and 550 full time staff members, ensuring organizational information security and protection of patient and family health data. Dr. Hawthorne is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. She earned a PhD in Information Studies from Drexel's College of Computing & Informatics, a Master of Healthcare Administration from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, a Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Florida A&M University.