The Brigham’s president leaving for Chicago job
Higgins was the hospital’s first Black president
Dr. Robert Higgins, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and executive vice president of Mass General Brigham, is leaving for a new job, the health care system said Thursday.
Higgins started in his current positions in December 2021, becoming the first Black president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He will return to Chicago, where his family lives, for a new role as the chief academic officer and president at Rush University, as well as the senior vice president for the Rush University System for Health, according to a Mass General Brigham statement.
Higgins will be in transition over the next several weeks before starting his new role in April, officials said.
“I’m proud of the hard work that we’ve done together to advance our journey to become an integrated academic health system and look forward to watching the successes of Mass General Brigham in the future,” Higgins said.
Higgins had previously worked at Rush, including serving as the chair of the cardio-thoracic surgery department from 2003 to 2010.
“I am so very grateful for Bob’s leadership, support, and partnership during a critical time in our journey to become a truly integrated academic health system,” Dr. Anne Klibanski, president and chief executive of Mass General Brigham, said in a message to staff. “At BWH, he championed efforts to create and nurture a diverse and inclusive culture.”
Under Higgins, the Brigham expanded its diversity and inclusion leadership team and started a leadership program to develop new leaders from underrepresented groups, she said. With Higgins at the helm, the hospital also received a $100 million gift, the largest in its history, creating the Gene Lay Institute of Immunology and Inflammation. Higgins also upgraded the urology division to an official department with its own chair — the first time the hospital started a new department in a decade, Klibanski said.
Dr. Giles Boland, president of the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization and executive vice president at Mass General Brigham, will serve as the hospital’s interim president. Boland is a former chair of the Brigham’s radiology department.
The hospital has not yet announced a timeline for selecting a new president.