Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the former top public health official in Illinois, has been hired as president and CEO of Sinai Chicago hospital system.
Ezike recently stepped down from her post as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, where she became a prominent figure over the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to guide the state’s response.
She became a familiar face to many across the state, standing beside Gov. J.B. Pritzker at regular news conferences about COVID-19, speaking to viewers at home in English and Spanish, and urging the public to get vaccinated and take precautions when necessary.
The safety-net system includes Mount Sinai and Schwab Rehabilitation hospitals on the city’s West Side and Holy Cross Hospital on the Southwest Side. Sinai Chicago serves many people with low incomes and those who live in vulnerable communities.
“There’s been a lot of talk about where I would go next, so I’m so excited to share with everyone that this is the place, despite many opportunities, many calls and emails with many exciting chances to do more great work that’s in line with my personal values, I know that the call to serve the communities that need help on Chicago’s West and Southwest sides is my next calling,” Ezike said at a news conference Thursday.
Ezike will be the first Black woman to lead the system, just as she was the state’s first Black woman to head the public health department. She was chosen after a nationwide search.
She said that she has devoted her career to promoting health equity, and is “ecstatic” to lead Sinai, focusing on those same issues. Many of the challenges in health care in Chicago are common issues across the country and must be addressed though collaboration and working with communities to address the disparities that affect health, she said.
Certain health conditions are more common on the South and West sides of the city than on the North Side, with great variation between life expectancies, such as a 30-year difference in life expectancies between Streeterville and Englewood. Over the years, a number of local hospitals and groups, including Sinai, have come together to try to address the disparities.
“All of us know that just what happens within the walls of a hospital or a rehab facility or a clinic, that’s just a small part of imparting health to a community,” Ezike said. “We know that equally or more important are having jobs, having housing, having safe spaces, being free from violence, being able to have grocery stores with fresh produce, all of these things are also tantamount to good health, and so we at Sinai Chicago need to be creative and innovative in our solutions to ensure that everyone has access to the things they need to live their best life, no matter where they live, regardless of their ZIP code.”
Sinai Chicago Board Chair Vincent Williams said the health system is “blessed” to have Ezike, and Chicagoans owe her “a debt of gratitude for what she did for us during COVID.”
Before she became the state’s public health director in 2019, Ezike was medical director at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. Ezike is a board-certified internist and pediatrician who earned degrees from Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
She became director of the Department of Public Health after the agency faced criticism for its role in handling a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at a veterans home in downstate Quincy during Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration. Under Ezike, the agency again faced tough questions from lawmakers, particularly Republicans, about how it addressed a coronavirus outbreak that tore through the state veterans home in LaSalle in November 2020. Some have also criticized her and the governor for their response to the pandemic, specifically, the restrictions that were put in place.
Ezike will take over at Sinai Chicago on June 13, replacing Karen Teitelbaum, who led the system for 15 years. Teitelbaum announced in September she planned to depart.
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(Chicago Tribune reporter Dan Petrella contributed to this article.)
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