The interim president and CEO of the IWK Health Centre for the past year will fill the position permanently.
Dr. Krista Jangaard’s role is effective immediately, after she was selected by the board of directors of Atlantic Canada’s biggest children’s hospital.
“Dr. Jangaard is the ideal fit for the IWK as we navigate a changing health system, address increasing demands and complexities facing staff, and leverage the organization’s strong voice to represent the interests and needs of the patients and families we serve,” Karen Hutt, chairwoman of the IWK’s board of directors, said in a news release.
“I am thrilled to have the privilege to lead an organization that is so very close to my heart and one that has shaped my career and been my home for the past 30 years,” Jangaard said in the release.
The newly appointed CEO started at the IWK in 1988 to complete her residency training before working in the neonatal-perinatal medicine division in 1996. She became the medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit in 2008 and neonatal-perinatal division head in 2010. In 2016, she was appointed as the vice-president of medicine.
Jangaard became interim CEO after Tracy Kitch resigned from the position in August 2017. An independent review later found that Kitch owed the hospital more than $22,000.
