Baystate Health Leadership

President & Chief Executive Officer, Baystate Health

Peter is leading Baystate Health through an exciting new era of healthy growth – in business and in community. As President and Chief Executive Officer, he is uprooting stagnant thinking by leading transformation with both passion and purpose. He teaches, supports, and lifts up those around him, helping them each define and more fully live their missions to impact the world. This has created a connected ecosystem of 13,000 caregivers, who individually and together are now on a mission to redefine health and health care.

Baystate Health is a not-for-profit, integrated health system serving more than 850,000 in western Massachusetts with a service area stretching from Connecticut to Vermont. With roots dating to the founding of Springfield Hospital in 1883 and serving as the only regional campus of UMass Chan Medical School, Baystate’s mission is to improve the health of the people in its communities every day, with quality and compassion. With a focus on quality, safety, value, and experience, Baystate Health is not only a keystone of the region, it is a national leader in healthcare.

Prior to joining Baystate Health in June 2024, Peter delivered seventeen years of leadership service with CommonSpirit Health as President & CEO at Centura Health across Colorado, Kansas, and Utah, Senior Vice President of Southeast Operations and national Chief Integration Officer, and President & CEO of CHI St. Vincent in Little Rock, Arkansas. Previous senior leadership roles include CHRISTUS Spohn Health System in Corpus Christi, Texas, PhyAmerica Physician Group in Durham, North Carolina, and Saint Clare’s Health Services in Denville, New Jersey.

Peter has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in health administration from Cornell University. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have been married for 31 years and have four children – Daniel (29), Lauren (24), Zachary (22), and Luke (17). The entire family has a strong commitment to promoting human dignity, the common good, and solidarity with the marginalized through community service, philanthropy, and governance.

Chief Physician Executive and Chief Academic Officer, Baystate Health
President, Baystate Medical Practices
Regional Executive Dean and Professor of Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate

Andrew W. Artenstein has served in senior leadership at Baystate Health (BH) since his arrival in 2012. He was recruited here from the Alpert School of Medicine of Brown University where he served as the physician-in-chief of Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and the founding director of the Center for Biodefense and Emerging Pathogens from 2001-2012. From 2012-2016, he served as the chair of the BH Department of Medicine and the Tufts University School of Medicine chair of medicine at Baystate. He has served in his current roles since 2016, providing leadership to and having accountability for the physician enterprise, including the academic network, Baystate Medical Practice (BMP) physician operations, service lines, clinical integration, population health, and Baycare Health Partners. As the BH chief academic officer and the regional executive dean of the UMass Chan-Baystate, Dr. Artenstein presides over undergraduate- and graduate medical education and the research enterprises of BH.

Dr. Artenstein earned his B.A. from the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and his M.B.A from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass. He completed his internal medicine residency at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and fellowships in infectious diseases and tropical medicine at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), both in Washington D.C. Dr. Artenstein has been nationally recognized for expertise in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. He served as a physician scientist in the U.S. Army from 1986-1996. During this time, he was the head of the Section of Protective Immunity to HIV-1 within the Division of Retrovirology at WRAIR, overseeing vaccine field sites in Thailand and a molecular epidemiology laboratory in Washington D.C. Dr. Artenstein has published more than 110 scholarly works in the medical literature. He is the author and editor of Vaccines: A Biography, a book detailing the history of vaccines, and In The Blink of an Eye: The Deadly Story of Epidemic Meningitis, both published by Springer.

Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer

Tyonne Hinson, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for Baystate Health, provides leadership to and has accountability for ensuring Baystate Health’s diversity, equity, and inclusion’s (DEI) and social justice impact is unifying and integrative by growing a more diverse and inclusive workforce, reducing health disparities, and improving family prosperity in marginalized communities. She proactively develops programs and initiatives that support the equitable delivery of healthcare services and eliminate disparities in health outcomes, as well as the creation of an inclusive environment for diverse caregivers who share a deep sense of belonging built on the principles of dignity and respect. Additionally, she provides strategic leadership in implementation and execution of the long-term vision and goals focused on advancing public health, community health, and DEI across the enterprise.

Dr. Hinson, who served as nurse manager for the NICU for Baystate Health early in her career, re-joined the Baystate team in 2023 as a member of the Senior Leadership Team. She brings more than 20 years of experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion through service in various leadership positions in clinical and executive nursing, healthcare administration and international/global healthcare. Prior to rejoining Baystate, she most recently served as senior director of Nursing Diversity Initiatives at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). At BCH, she led departmental diversity and inclusion strategies to strengthen the enterprise health equity portfolio, as well as workforce advancement, mentorship, recruitment/retention, and professional development for 6,000 registered nurses, advanced practice registered nurses, and interprofessional colleagues spanning numerous clinical disciplines.

Dr. Hinson earned a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree from Syracuse University, a master of science in nursing (MSN) degree with a focus in healthcare administration from Villanova University, and a doctor of public health (DrPH) degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds Nurse Executive Board Certification (NE-BC) from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). She is an advisory board member of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and emeritus board member of Villanova University Fitzpatrick School of Nursing Board of Consultors. She is a 2019 graduate of the MGH Disparities Leadership Program and an awardee of the Dr. Terry Nance Award for Inclusive Excellence from Villanova University.

Recognized as a diversity equity, and inclusion leader, Dr. Hinson was named a Diversity Leader Rising Star for 2024 by Modern Healthcare and among the top health-system chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officers to know by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Chief Financial Officer

Raymond McCarthy, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), is responsible for the financial oversight of Baystate Health, a $2.5B integrated delivery system in western Massachusetts.

His responsibilities include providing leadership to and having accountability for budgeting, financial reporting, multi-year planning and analysis, capital financing, treasury & investment services, managed care contracting, decision support, revenue cycle and supply chain.

McCarthy has more than thirty years of health care experience having first joined Baystate in 1993. Previous roles he’s held at Baystate include Vice President Finance Support Services, CFO of Baystate’s provider enterprise (Baystate Medical Practices) and CFO of Baystate’s joint venture Baycare Health Partners, the entity that oversees Baystate’s value-based risk arrangements through an accountable care and physician hospital organization. Over the years, McCarthy has held other healthcare finance roles with CIGNA Healthcare and Yale New Haven Health System.

McCarthy is a CPA, Massachusetts Health Leadership College Fellow and holds an MBA and BA from Western New England University, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Chief Nursing Executive

Joanne Miller, Chief Nursing Executive for Baystate Health, provides leadership to and has accountability for nursing practice, capacity management, case management, and the transfer center for the Baystate Health system. Joanne joined Baystate in 2021 as a Chief Nursing Officer for Baystate Medical Center and added responsibilities to her role as Chief Nursing Executive for Baystate Health in May of 2022. Currently, she serves in a distinct position, overseeing nursing system-wide.

Bringing more than 30 years of nursing leadership experience to Baystate, Miller has served as a Chief Nurse Executive for Carson Tahoe Health System and in CNO and Vice President of Patient Care Services roles at Jupiter Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Mount Sinai, ChristianaCare, and Hartford Healthcare.

A transformation leader with successful outcomes for creating innovative approaches to care and delivery models, Miller is passionate about eliminating preventable harm, improving the patient experience, and creating a healthy work environment for team members.

Miller earned her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Mount Saint Mary College, her master’s in nursing administration from the University of Hartford, and her doctor of executive nursing practice degree from Drexel University. She became a Baldridge Executive Fellow in 2017 and holds a Nurse Executive Advanced Board Certification (NEA-BC).

Chief Transformation Officer

Mary Elizabeth “Beth” O’Brien serves as Chief Transformation Officer for Baystate Health. In her role, she supports senior leadership in mission- and values-driven approaches to improving our profitability and financial imperatives, core operations, throughput and access, growth and new revenue streams, and partnerships and acquisitions integration. O’Brien is a sought-after, experienced senior executive who has served as a Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer in well-known health systems around the country for almost four decades. She has also served as the managing director of the health care practice for Navigant Consulting (now called Guidehouse) and senior vice president for medical management and network operations at Cigna. Since 2017, she has provided results-oriented interim strategic leadership to organizations including Trinity of New England’s Mercy Hospital in Springfield and, most recently, Mount Auburn Hospital in the Beth Israel Lahey Health System.

Chief of Staff and Vice President of System Integration

Andrew Ritz serves as Chief of Staff and Vice President of System Integration for Baystate Health and supports the office of the CEO, the President’s Council, the Transformation Center, the strategic planning process, integration opportunities, and other key priorities.

He comes to Baystate Health from Centura Health where he served in Vice President roles in three distinct markets and drove operational improvements. Most recently, he oversaw hospital operations and service line growth across three hospitals in the Colorado Springs market.

Ritz has served as a lieutenant in the United States Navy at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Healthcare Center at the Great Lakes Naval State. Deployed as part of Operation Continuing Promise 2015, he traveled to 11 countries in the Caribbean and Central America onboard the Naval Hospital Ship USNS COMFORT (T-AH 20).

Ritz is a dynamic servant leader who has greatly contributed to growth, operational efficiency, best practice patient quality and safety, and financial transformation. He was raised in the Hartford area and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a master’s degree from Cornell University. He and his wife Brittany are the proud parents of two sons.

Interim Chief Administrative Officer

Dean Sanpei serves as the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for Baystate Health. He provides leadership to and has accountability for strategy, human resources, legal, information technology, marketing and communications, philanthropy, and government relations. He heads a council of senior leaders, the Administrative Leadership Council, which serves as the decision-making body for matters related to providing support and service to acute care, the physician enterprise, and Baystate’s academic network.

Prior to joining Baystate Sanpei was the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Centura Health. Centura was the largest healthcare network in the Denver metro, Greater Colorado, Western Kansas, and Utah area with over 20 hospitals, 13 affiliated hospitals, health at home, urgent care centers, and physician clinics which met the needs of more than a half million people each year. Under his leadership, Centura built sustainable, forward-thinking strategies to facilitate meeting the needs of the community.

Previous to joining Centura he was the Vice President of Strategy for Intermountain Healthcare where he had served in progressively more responsible hospital and health system strategy roles for over 17 years. Intermountain Healthcare, is an integrated healthcare delivery system with 22 hospitals headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served as an elected Representative in the Utah State Legislature and chaired executive appropriations in the House of Representatives where he was responsible for a $15.1 billion annual state budget. He also helped move Utah Medicaid toward more accountable care and population health initiatives as well as drove efforts to ensure the state remains among a small minority of states with AAA credit ratings.

Sanpei has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Hawaii and a master of public administration degree from Brigham Young University. He has been consistently recognized for his political advocacy on behalf of public employees, people with disabilities, technology development, tax reform, and the business community. He is also active in child advocacy and international volunteer efforts.

President of Baycare Health Partners

A well-known, highly respected, collaborative, and trusted physician in our community, Richard Shuman, President of Baycare Health Partners, brings proven leadership experience, a demonstrated ability to lead medical groups in performing well in risk-based contracting, and a profound understanding of value-based care. He has deep knowledge of the local market coupled with strong relationships and understanding of the physician community. He has broad experience in healthcare and population health, and a vision for enhancing the value of Baycare to both providers and the community.

As healthcare continues to create new challenges, Dr. Shuman has adapted to the changes while inspiring colleagues and providing a clear vision to enable organizational success. One of his most significant achievements has been to instill a “do the right thing” culture that is based on the core values of integrity and respect. Over the past 25 years, Dr. Shuman has served as a physician leader for large multispecialty medical practices in the Pioneer Valley and Connecticut.

Most recently, he served as the president of Trinity Health of New England Medical Group representing 1,000 providers. His experience includes working as a medical director in healthcare administration, the insurance industry, as well as providing direct patient care. Dr. Shuman was active in Baycare governance since 2009, including serving on the Board of Directors and as Chair from 2015 through 2017. He also served on the Health New England Board of Directors from 2016 to 2019 and held several leadership positions in healthcare of increasing responsibility.

Board-certified in Internal Medicine, Dr. Shuman completed his residency in internal medicine at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He earned his MD from the University of Massachusetts Medical School where he earned the Sandoz Award in recognition of superior academic achievement and contribution to healthcare, and he earned a bachelor of art degree in biology and art history at Harvard University. Dr. Shuman lives in East Longmeadow with Elinor, his wife.

Interim Chief Operating Officer

Sam Skura serves as Interim Chief Operating Officer for Baystate Health, providing leadership to and has accountability for all hospitals and system services, including acute care operations, ambulatory operations, surgical services, and facilities management.

Skura joined Baystate Health in 2022 as the President of Baystate Medical Center and Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations for Baystate Health. He oversaw all aspects of clinical care delivery and operations for five hospitals across the system, including Baystate Medical Center, Baystate Health’s 768-bed flagship hospital.
Skura has a deep commitment towards quality and safety outcomes as well as the patient and family experience. Bringing an extensive background in hospital leadership, he most recently served as COO at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a major teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. In previous roles, he served as senior vice president of Ambulatory and Clinical Services and chief administrative officer at Beth Israel Deaconess.

Prior to Beth Israel Deaconess, Sam was a vice president of Clinical Operations at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. He also held managerial roles at Brigham & Women’s Hospital/Partners Healthcare in Boston and Fallon Healthcare System in Worcester.

He has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Massachusetts, Isenberg School of Management, a master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University and a bachelor of arts and economics from Brandeis University.

Chief Legal Officer, Baystate Health

Vanessa L. Smith, Esq., Chief Legal Officer, is responsible for enterprise-wide legal, corporate compliance, risk management, and governance services at Baystate Health. She leads teams responsible for the delivery of legal services to Baystate Health and its affiliates, implementation and management of comprehensive system-wide compliance, privacy, clinical risk management, and corporate governance programs, as well as the operation of Baystate’s wholly-owned insurance company, Baystate Health Insurance Company . She serves as the principal legal advisor to the President & CEO and the Board of Trustees.

Vanessa brings to her role a depth of expertise in the wide range of legal issue that face health care organizations. She joined Baystate Health in 2016 as Associate General Counsel and became Vice President and Chief General Counsel in 2017. She is a trusted in-house counselor and strategic partner and has developed an experienced, responsive, and well-respected Law Department team that adeptly supports the changing and diverse needs of the health system.

Prior to coming to Baystate, Vanessa was a partner at Bulkley, Richardson & Gelinas, in Springfield, where she was a member of the firm’s Health Law Practice Group. In that role, she provided legal support and guidance to health care systems, including Baystate, for 15 years on a wide variety of health care issues and built strong working relationships with leaders across the organization. Earlier in her career, she served as a law clerk for the Hon. Rosemary S. Pooler, first at the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York and then at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

As an active member of the community, Vanessa has served on the boards of several community nonprofits, and she currently serves on the Holyoke Community College Board of Trustees.

Vanessa holds a bachelor’s degree in French from Wells College and a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law. She lives in Holyoke with her spouse, Elizabeth Lehman.

Chief Marketing and Communications Officer

Jennifer Wills serves as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for Baystate Health. She is a storyteller and strategic thought partner with more than 22 years of experience leading and partnering to solve business, marketing, and communications challenges.

Most recently, Wills served as Vice President of Communications and Chief of Staff for CommonSpirit Health’s Mountain Region in Colorado, Kansas, and Utah. For more than 10 years, she led regional and hospital communications, crisis communications and issues management, public relations, organic social media, and leadership, governance, physician, and foundation events for the 25 hospitals and 240 clinics.

Prior to CommonSpirit, she managed her own consulting agency, Wills Communications, LLC and worked with GroundFloor Media, an integrated marketing and communications firm based in Denver, for nine years. Jennifer has provided consulting support to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, Colo., St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo., Rose Medical Center in Denver, among others.

A relatable and servant leader, she enjoys helping healthcare organizations navigate complex operational changes and crises, improving employee engagement, and promoting and managing the reputation of their business and brand.

Wills earned a Bachelor of Science from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at University of Colorado, Boulder and will receive her master's in business administration - healthcare from Northern Arizona University in 2025.

Interim Chief Information Officer

Paul Watson, Chief Information Officer, is a proven technology leader with more than 15 years of experience as a CIO and Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Watson is known for his ability to drive operational excellence and deliver strategic IT transformations. His expertise spans enterprise transformation, mergers and acquisitions, and technology advisory across industries, including healthcare, where he has helped organizations optimize their IT operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction.

In his current role, Watson is responsible for assessment of Baystate Health’s IT function, organizational needs, and IT’s alignment to fiscal year priorities of improving core operations and building a bridge that readies Baystate for transformation.

Most recently, Paul served as Technology Operating Partner for WCAS – Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a private investment firm in healthcare and technology. While there, he led technology strategy and coached CIOs and CTOs across a portfolio of healthcare companies. He has successfully implemented employee resource planning and customer relationship management solutions, strengthened cybersecurity programs, and led AI initiatives. He has had success building high performing IT teams, driving infrastructure improvements, and delivering significant cost savings at USAP, Inc., Springstone, Inc., and Abzena, Inc.

Paul lives in the Hartford area and holds a master’s degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rutgers University.