The University of Miami Health System is pleased to announce Stephen L. Demers as its new chief operating officer.
Demers has more than 30 years’ experience leading operations in academic, community, and military health care systems, and new business ventures. His career has stemmed from a lifelong interest in health care and business. As an undergraduate at the University of New Hampshire, he majored in Health Management and Policy, which enabled him to combine those interests. He then earned an MBA at Northeastern University.
Demers’ professional career began in the military, where he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Service Corps, rising over five years to become director of administration at a naval branch medical clinic.
Following his service in the Navy, Demers joined Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute — both affiliates of Harvard Medical School — in 1996 as administrative director for the Division of Thoracic Surgery and the Thoracic Oncology Program, and then went to the University of South Florida College of Medicine in 1999 as chief administrator for the Department of Surgery.
Demers became an entrepreneur in 2005 as founding principal/COO of the Surgical Safety Institute. In 2007, he returned to academic medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Health Care System as COO of the Department of Surgery. He joined Lahey in 2009 as vice president and executive director for cardiovascular and musculoskeletal services.
