VANCOUVER, Wash. – PeaceHealth recently announced that Sarah Ness is serving as its new executive vice president of people and culture.
An accomplished executive leader with more than 20 years of healthcare experience, Ness has spent most of her professional career dedicated to PeaceHealth. With a deep understanding of PeaceHealth’s Mission, she has successfully filled multiple key leadership roles including chief of staff, system vice president of marketing and consumer analytics and system director of strategic communications and engagement. Ness has proven herself to be a strategic, collaborative, pragmatic problem-solver, who delivers results with humility and transparency.
Providing oversight for Human Resources, Patient Experience, Marketing and Communications, and governance, Ness will foster stronger connectivity across these core functions as PeaceHealth strives to be a person-first, community-centered organization, delivering greater value to people and health justice for communities.
“Over the past 20 years at PeaceHealth, and especially during the pandemic, I’ve seen the heart and dedication our caregivers have for our patients and communities,” said Ness. “Whether rescuing an accident victim on the way to work or granting the dying wish of a patient to see her son get married, our caregivers are the keystone to building a truly person-first organization.”
Prior to joining PeaceHealth, Ness served as a marketing and communications executive for various leading retail centers in the Seattle-metro area working with brands such as Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer. Ness holds an MBA from City University of Seattle and a dual bachelor’s degree in business administration and humanities from Seattle University.
She currently serves on the marketing and communications advisory board of Seton Catholic College Prep and is a member of Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation, a premier network of female executives.
Ness is based at PeaceHealth’s system office in Vancouver, Washington.
About PeaceHealth
PeaceHealth, based in Vancouver, Wash., is a not-for-profit Catholic health system offering care to communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. PeaceHealth has approximately 16,000 caregivers, a medical group practice with more than 900 providers and 10 medical centers serving both urban and rural communities throughout the Northwest. In 1890, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace founded what has become PeaceHealth. The Sisters shared expertise and transferred wisdom from one medical center to another, always finding the best way to serve the unmet need for healthcare in their communities. Today, PeaceHealth is the legacy of the founding Sisters and continues with a spirit of respect, stewardship, collaboration and social justice in fulfilling its Mission. Visit us online at peacehealth.org.
