As the Medical Center Director of the Dayton VA Medical Center, Dr. DeFrancesco is responsible for a tertiary care, academic affiliated health care system with 351 beds and a budget exceeding $710 million annually. The health care system serves nearly 46,000 Veterans annually and is comprised of the Dayton VA and four Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Middletown, Lima and Springfield, Ohio plus Richmond, Indiana, and a dual eligibility clinic at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Prior to this appointment, she served as the Associate Director of the Dayton VA Medical Center and served as the Interim Medical Center Director of the VA Northern Indiana Health Care System (VANIHCS) in the Summer of 2022. She also serves as the lead for the South-Central Ohio Market (S-COM) of VISN 10 comprising of Dayton, Cincinnati, Chillicothe, and Columbus where she is responsible for the collaborative efforts between the sites which serve over 140,000 Veterans. Dr. DeFrancesco is board certified in health care management and is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE). She is a graduate of the VA’s Health Care Leadership Development Program (HCLDP-2015), Executive Career Development Program (ECDP-2017), Leadership Veterans Affairs (LVA-2022) and Senior Executive Service Candidate Program (SESCDP-2024). Dr. DeFrancesco is recognized as a thought leader in health care, business and health technology. In 2023, she was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as an Emerging Leader for Provider Organizations. She was named to the Dayton Business Journals 40 Under 40 list in 2018. In 2016, she was recognized as the Veterans Health Administration’s Certified Mentor of the Year (GS 13-15), Chief Biomedical Engineer of the Year and she also received the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s Young Professional Award. She is a military spouse who resides with her husband in Dayton, OH.

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Cindy Burger, MS, RN, serves as vice president and chief experience officer at Dayton Children’s Hospital. In this role, she combines her clinical expertise with extensive leadership experience to transform the patient, family, and employee experience. She is responsible for employee wellness, patient and family experience, Child Life, Patient Relations, facilities, building services and construction, volunteer resources, dietetics and nutrition, environmental services and public safety—key areas that directly support the hospital’s mission and strategic roadmap.

In her role, she is the executive responsible for the hospital’s long-range master facility plan. She has guided the redesign of the NICU and PICU, as well as the development of the Soin Pediatric Trauma and Emergency Department. Her certification and expertise in evidence-based clinical design, paired with her ability to translate strategy into operations, helped Dayton Children’s earn two prestigious National Design awards from the American Institute of Architects and the College of Critical Care Medicine. Cindy was responsible for the design and build of the new eight story patient tower in 2017 and most recently her leadership has brought to life the Mathile Center for Mental Health and Wellness.

Since joining Dayton Children’s in 1988, Cindy has held multiple leadership roles, including Director of Critical Care, Emergency and Trauma Services and operational leader of the Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative in partnership with Miami Valley Hospital. Her work has earned national recognition for quality, safety, and innovation, including programs such as Race to Results in the PICU, the Emergency Department outreach nurse program, and a family-centered care model in the NICU.

Cindy earned both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing from Wright State University. In 2015, she was recognized among the Top 25 Women to Watch in Dayton. Cindy has been recognized nationally in Becker's Health Care in 2023, 2024 and 2025 as one of the top 50 Chief Experience Officers in the country.

Cindy Burger, MS, RN, is a vice president and the chief experience officer. This position plays a key role in meeting the hospital’s mission and is a key focus area for the hospitals strategic roadmap, Destination 2020. In this role Cindy combines her clinical expertise with her leadership experience to help transform the patient, family and employee experience at Dayton Children’s. She is responsible for employee experience (human relations), patient and family experience, facilities and public safety.

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Chad Whelan, MD, is the system chief operating officer and president of Miami Valley Hospital. Dr. Whelan joined Premier Health in August 2023. Dr. Whelan is an accomplished physician executive and visionary leader in the health care industry. With a distinguished career spanning several decades, Dr. Whelan brings a wealth of health care leadership experience to Premier Health. He has held key positions in academic medical centers and health systems across the United States, including Banner Health, Loyola University Health, and the University of Chicago Medicine.

Prior to joining Premier Health, Dr. Whelan was a strategic advisor to the University of Arizona Health Sciences. During this time, he was pivotal in fostering strong partnerships between academia and health care delivery systems in Arizona. As chief executive officer of Banner-University Medicine Tucson, Dr. Whelan led efforts to integrate health care delivery systems. Before his tenure in Arizona, Dr. Whelan served as President of Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois.

Dr. Whelan earned a medical degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed residency in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota. He holds a master's in health services administration from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He is a medical author and treasurer for the Society of Hospital Medicine Board of Directors.

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John is known as a healthcare leader and a trusted executive who can create effective strategies to scale operations while providing elite-level service to thousands of patients. His career track shows measurable success providing positive outcomes from roles such as director, executive director, chief of nursing, vice president, and network vice president. John’s academic credentials include a bachelor’s degree in Nursing as well as a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and Healthcare Systems from Wright State University, with additional master certifications for Leadership Development from the University of Dayton.

He is at his best when leading projects aimed at bolstering revenue, patient safety, and return on investment. By blending his strategic planning and change management expertise with his academic knowledge, John has established Command Centers capable of handling over 25,000 calls per month and over 1,000 patient transfers per day. He is highly experienced in handling operations with over $1B in net revenue and is relied upon for planning and executing company strategy and vision.

As a healthcare operations expert, Kettering Health has trusted John to create market assessments, manage multi-million-dollar budgets, resolve staffing issues, and streamline processes to ensure the best possible care is provided. His attention to detail, tactical planning, and big-picture thinking provided the essential support needed to drive patient safety business development.

He is a solutions-oriented communicator, dedicated to building numerous quality stakeholder relationships with value and purpose. As a vice president at Kettering, he has directed operations for over 13 emergency departments and has managed, trained, and developed a highly capable team that seamlessly worked cohesively as healthcare pioneers.

John’s future goals include continuing to drive patient safety, revenue generation with innovative strategies capable of empowering growth for complex healthcare organizations. He would like to continue building strategic initiatives in order to develop and support the next group of Senior Healthcare Leaders, equipping them with the tools for strategic planning, compliance, and leadership development to become stewards for their teams and communities.

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