Gwen MacKenzie

Board Member at Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation

Gwen MacKenzie, board member of Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, knows what makes the difference between a good hospital and an exceptional one. In her former roles as CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, and an executive with Ascension Health and the Detroit Medical Center in Michigan, she’s spent her career leading large health care systems. 

When she was approached to join the Healthcare Foundation’s board in 2019, MacKenzie says it was a “pretty easy decision” for her. “People don’t realize that in order to provide extraordinary healthcare, there has to be a funding source like the Healthcare Foundation.” There’s a “constant need to keep healthcare at an exceptional level,” MacKenzie explains.

Over the past three years, the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation has awarded over $5 million a year in grants to the hospital system for programs that MacKenzie says, “can’t be supported any other way,” such as continuing education for staff or research and clinical trials.

Next spring, MacKenzie will co-chair the Healthcare Foundation’s Women & Medicine Educational Luncheon on March 25. The topic is women’s cancer, including the genetic counseling program at SMH. MacKenzie, who is a former oncology nurse, points out that genetic counseling assesses a patient’s cancer risk so that treatments can be “tailored to a patient’s specific DNA.” 

MacKenzie is emphatic about her role with Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation. When it comes to our local healthcare, her conviction shines through: “It’s our health system, our neighbors, our community,” she asserts. “Why should healthcare be anything less than exceptional?”

Gwen MacKenzie
Board Member 
Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation
B-, 1515 S Osprey Ave #4, Sarasota, FL 34239
(941) 917-1286
smhf.org