Business
The Illinois Medical District (IMD), one of the largest urban medical districts in the United States, is a 560-acre region of Chicago that includes medical research facilities, labs, a biotech business incubator, universities, raw land development areas, four hospitals and more than 40 healthcare related facilities. Dr. Suzet McKinney, the CEO and Executive Director of the IMD, is a seasoned public health expert in the fields of emergency preparedness and natural disasters. She sits down with Skender Director of Healthcare Design Jenny Han to share more about how she got her start in public health and what led her from working on the Ebola outbreak to running the IMD. Learn more about the IMD and an exciting new initiative the IMD is involved with, West Side United – a collaboration working to build community health and economic wellness on Chicago’s West Side. About Suzet McKinneyDr. Suzet M. McKinney currently serves as CEO/Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District. She is the former Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), where she oversaw the emergency preparedness efforts for the Department and coordinated those efforts within the larger spectrum of the City of Chicago’s Public Safety activities, in addition to overseeing the Department’s Division of Women and Children’s Health.Dr. McKinney has earned a reputation as an experienced, knowledgeable public health official with exceptional communication skills. She has served as an on-camera media expert on emergency issues including biological and chemical threats, natural disasters, pandemic influenza, and climate-related emergencies. A sought-after expert in her field, she has also provided support to the U.S. Department of Defense’s, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, lending subject matter expertise in biological terrorism preparedness to the country of Poland.Dr. McKinney serves on the Board of Directors for Susan G. Komen Chicago, Thresholds, and the African-American Legacy of the Chicago Community Trust. Dr. McKinney is Co-Chair of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), Health and Medicine Division’s Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Disasters and Emergencies and is a member of the NASEM Board on Health Sciences Policy. She also serves on the Science and Security Board for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Board of Scientific Counselors for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Advisory Council (NAC). In academia, Dr. McKinney serves as an Instructor in the Division of Translational Policy and Leadership Development at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Additionally, she serves as a mentor for the Biomedical Sciences Careers Project, also at Harvard University. She is the co-author of the new text: Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Practical Solutions for the Real World (2018), and was named one of Chicago’s Notable Women in Healthcare (2018).Dr. McKinney holds her Doctorate degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. She received her Master of Public Health degree (Health Care Administration) and certificates in Managed Care and Health Care Administration from Benedictine University in Lisle, IL.