Dell Children’s Medical Center, Dell Medical School announce new addition to executive team

In a joint statement, Ascension Seton and the University of Texas at Austin announced May 27 that Z. Leah Harris will be brought on to fill leadership roles at Dell Medical School and Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Harris has been tapped as chair of Dell Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief at Dell Children’s Medical Center, according to the news release. Harris will further serve as a professor of pediatrics and director of the Dell Pediatric Research Institute.

The new executive will assume her new roles in August.

“Leah is a veteran critical care physician, an accomplished clinician and researcher, and an award-winning educator,” said Clay Johnston, dean of Dell Medical School, in the May 27 news release. “But what makes her an even better fit for our collaborative team in Austin is that she’s an innovator who brings a multidisciplinary approach to health and health care.”

Harris leaves her positions as professor of pediatrics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and division chief of critical care medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. According to the news release, Harris has more than two decades of leadership experience at health care institutions across the country, including periods of time at Johns Hopkins University and the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.