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Lee Health Announces Dr. Ryan Brown as Lee Memorial Hospital’s Chief Physician and Operations Executive

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FORT MYERS, Fla. (Oct. 13, 2021) --- Ryan Brown, M.D., SFHM, FACP, has been named chief physician and operations executive for Lee Memorial Hospital.

Brown comes to Lee Health with more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience.

In his new role, Brown will be responsible for overseeing all hospital operations at Lee Memorial, jointly with Julia Liebscher, RNC, MSM, BSN, chief nurse executive. That includes ensuring overall quality of medical care while supporting a culture of performance, quality, service, accountability, and transparency for clinicians and staff across Lee Memorial.

Most recently, Brown held leadership positions with Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina, including specialty medical director for hospital medicine and medical director for acute care health informatics. He also previously served in leadership roles with Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord, North Carolina, and the Naval Hospital Corpus Christi Health Care System in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“Dr. Brown is a seasoned physician leader, and we are very excited to welcome him to our team,” said Armando Llechu, Lee Health’s chief officer hospital operations and women and children’s services. “I look forward to all that he’ll accomplish while leading Lee Memorial Hospital as the chief physician and operations executive, and I have no doubt he will continue the exceptional job Dr. James Kasiewicz did while serving in the interim position.”

Brown is filling the role previously vacated by Dr. Scott Wolf, who left Lee Health last year to pursue another opportunity. James Kasiewicz, M.D., FACS, served as the interim chief physician executive while a national search was conducted to fill the position. During Dr. Kasiewicz’s tenure, Lee Memorial Hospital effectively responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and developed capacity management solutions, thanks to his exceptional leadership. Dr. Kasiewicz will continue his roles as trauma medical director, chief of surgery and division chief of trauma surgery.

Brown earned his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Brown began his role Oct. 1.

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