About
First Name:
Last Name:
Title and Organization:
Bio:
Sarah Kirby — a board-certified healthcare executive who developed a hospital and led clinical service lines and a healthcare technology company —has joined the University of South Carolina as associate Vice President for clinical affairs. She will manage the planning, design and execution of USC’s transformative neurological hospital and rehabilitation center.
Kirby has led every level of hospital operations before becoming CEO of Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge where she oversaw construction and staff recruitment for the $150 million, 76-bed hospital.
After five years as the CEO of Parkridge, Kirby was recruited to lead Cadre Health, a health care technologies company. In the aftermath of the pandemic, Kirby saw a pressing need for bedside nurses and returned to clinical care. She worked in labor and delivery as well as surgery until she was asked to lead the trauma program for Prisma Health Richland.
The neurological hospital and rehabilitation center planned for the USC’s Health Sciences Campus in Columbia’s BullStreet District will be the first of its kind in the Southeast and will ease South Carolina’s status as a “desert” for neurological care.
Kirby was the chief operating officer/CEO of Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge. Previously, she was the system vice president of Clinical Operations for Palmetto Health. She was director of Patient Care Services/CNO - Hillcrest Memorial Hospital at Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center. She also served as director of Maternal/Child Services and Pediatrics - St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center, Green Bay, and has held several staff nursing and leadership positions. Kirby has led a number of hospital-wide United Way campaigns and is a member of the Young Philanthropist group, Women's Leadership Council and the Palmetto Society. She is a graduate of Leadership Greenville and Leadership Greer and was awarded the American College of Healthcare Executives 2009 Regent's Early Careerist Award for South Carolina as the South Carolina Young Healthcare Executive of the Year. Kirby earned her Master of Science degree in Nursing from Troy University and her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from James Madison University.
Fellowship Program
Class
