Michael J. Dowling, President & CEO, Northwell Health
Michael Dowling is one of the health care industry’s most highly respected voices, achieving the #1 ranking in Modern Healthcare magazine’s 2022 list of the “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.” As a health care executive over the past three decades, he has been a no-excuses advocate for reforms that have helped the industry become more patient-focused and committed to quality and safety. His willingness to take a stand on societal issues such as gun violence and immigration has earned widespread praise and recognition from peers and the news media. During his years in academia and government, he distinguished himself as compassionate voice for those in need, developing and promoting innovative health and human services policies.
As president and CEO of Northwell Health for 22 years, he has demonstrated invaluable leadership in overseeing a rapidly expanding clinical, research and academic enterprise with annual revenue of $18 billion. With a workforce of more than 85,000, Northwell is the largest health care provider and private employer in New York state, caring for more than two million people annually through a vast network of 21 hospitals, more than 900 outpatient facilities –including 220 primary care practices and 50-plus urgent care centers—along with home care, rehabilitation and end-of-life services.
Mr. Dowling has invested heavily in Northwell’s research arm, the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, home to 50 research labs, 3,000 clinical research trials, and 5,000 scientists and staff who are transforming the treatment of conditions like lupus, arthritis, sepsis, cancer, psychiatric illness and Alzheimer’s disease. The Feinstein has gained stature as the global headquarters of bioelectronic medicine research, where physician scientists are tapping neural pathways that signal the body to heal itself, reducing reliance on prescription drugs.
Under Mr. Dowling’s leadership, Northwell has also pursued a visionary approach to medical education, developing innovative curricula at its Zucker School of Medicine and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. Northwell’s graduate medical education programs have become one of the nation’s largest, training more than 1,900 medical residents and fellows annually. Further underscoring his commitment to education, Mr. Dowling’s first act when becoming Northwell’s CEO in 2002 was creating a corporate university, the Center for Learning & Innovation, that has helped instill a culture of lifelong learning among employees at all levels of the organization.
Mr. Dowling’s highly visible leadership style enabled the health system to successfully navigate the intense challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably in 2020 when the New York metropolitan area was at the epicenter of the epidemic’s first wave. Mr. Dowling detailed his and Northwell’s experiences in a book entitled Leading Through a Pandemic: The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis. Northwell clinicians treated more than 350,000 COVID patients and the health system used its innovative culture to significantly expand bed capacity and leverage its resources to ensure adequate supplies of lifesaving drugs, ventilators, personal protective equipment and other essential provisions to protect patients and caregivers, including administering the nation’s first COVID vaccines in December 2020.
Prior to becoming CEO, Mr. Dowling was the health system’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, playing a key role in initiating mergers and acquisitions that enabled Northwell to become New York’s largest integrated health system. Before joining Northwell in 1995, he was a senior vice president at Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Mr. Dowling served in New York State government for 12 years during the 1980s and early 1990s, including seven years as deputy secretary of human services to former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, state director of health, education and human services, and later commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services. He initiated numerous innovative programs aimed at expanding primary care access to the medically underserved and uninsured, and helping the state to combat the crack cocaine epidemic at that time.
Before his public service career, Mr. Dowling was a professor of social policy and assistant dean at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Services, and director of the Fordham campus in Westchester County. He was also a former instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Continuing Professional Education.
Mr. Dowling has been honored with many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including: The Conference Board’s 2023 Committee for Economic Development Distinguished Leadership Award, a 2022 Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the 2021 GlassDoor Employees’ Choice Award, the Columbia University School of Business’ 2020 Deming Cup for Operational Excellence, the 2020 Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, the 2012 B’nai B’rith National Healthcare Award, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership’s 2011 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems’ 2011 CEO IT Achievement Award, the Ellis Island Honors Society’s 2007 Medal of Honor, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the American Jewish Committee’s National Human Relations Award, the State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy’s Distinguished Public Service Award, the Mental Health Association of New York State’s Outstanding Public Service Award, and the American Society for Public Administration’s Alfred E. Smith Award.
Mr. Dowling was the Grand Marshal of New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 2017, when he was also inducted into the Irish America Hall of Fame. He has been ranked on Modern Healthcare magazine’s 100 Most-Influential People in Healthcare list for 16 consecutive years, including his number one ranking in 2022.
In addition to his 2020 book about Northwell’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Dowling is the co-author of a 2020 memoir entitled After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant’s Journey from Ireland to America, which chronicles his poverty-stricken childhood in Ireland, his years as a social policy expert in academia and in New York State government, and his ascent to becoming one of the health care industry’s preeminent leaders. He is also the co-author of the 2018 book Health Care Reboot: Megatrends Energizing American Medicine about the trends that are driving the nation’s health care system toward greater quality, safety, access and
affordability.
Mr. Dowling is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, the Foreign Policy Association, the North American Board of the Smurfit School of Business at University College in Dublin, Ireland, the National Center for Healthcare Leadership, the Greater New York Hospital Association, the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), the League of Voluntary Hospitals of New York, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), The Healthcare Institute and the Long Island Association. Mr. Dowling earned his BA degree from University College Cork, Ireland, and his master’s from Fordham University. He also has honorary doctorates from Queens University Belfast, University College Dublin, Fordham, Hofstra University and Dowling College.