Mayo Clinic expert to advise president on health care, business leadership

Shirley A. Weis, vice president and chief administrative officer emerita for Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has been appointed special adviser to ASU President Michael M. Crow.

Weis, who will have faculty appointments at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI) and the W. P. Carey School of Business, will help guide the university’s cutting-edge efforts to address quality, cost and access in the rapidly changing health care industry.

“Shirley Weis brings to the institution her expertise in integrating leadership, communications and financial knowledge to implement organization-wide programs and initiatives that focus on quality, safety and service,” Crow said. “She will help ASU further embed itself in the effort to resolve pressing challenges in health care through collaboration and innovation.”

Named one of the “Top 25 Women in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine in 2007 and 2013, Weis has 40 years of experience in clinical and administrative leadership positions, including as chair of administrative services for Mayo Clinic in Arizona, chair of the Mayo Clinic Managed Care Department, and executive director for Mayo Management Services, Inc. She also served as chief operating officer for the Blue Care Network Health Maintenance Organization in Lansing, Michigan.

“One of the greatest unmet needs in health care right now is the availability of professionals who are skilled in collaborative leadership,” said Weis, who will be a professor of practice at CONHI and the W. P. Carey School of Business. “Helping physicians, nurses, administrators, insurance executives and other health care professionals collaborate effectively is an ongoing process that can draw from ASU’s collaborative and innovative environment. I look forward to working with Dr. Crow and deans Teri Pipe and Amy Hillman, as well as other faculty members.”

In addition to her leadership roles, Weis also has extensive academic and teaching experience. She is emerita professor in the Mayo College of Medicine and has taught health care leadership at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, Michigan State University and Winona State University.

Weis was honored with a doctor of science degree from Michigan State University in 2014, where she graduated magna cum laude with a nursing degree and was named a Distinguished Alumna. She earned her master’s degree in management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“There is a tremendous need to align health care services with patients’ demands,” said Weis. “Innovative institutions of higher education, such as ASU, are already finding ways through research, education and practice to support that end goal.”