Lisa Yerian, MD

Since joining the organization in 2004, Lisa has held several pathology and health system leadership positions.

In her role as chief improvement officer, Lisa leads a team of improvement professionals who build an improvement culture and drive strategic improvements for patients and caregivers across Cleveland Clinic. Under her leadership, the Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model was developed, tested, and refined as the roadmap for the organization to pursue a culture of improvement. The model is now used by other organizations within and beyond healthcare. She also leads Access Transformation — an enterprise effort to easily and effectively connect people with care across digital, virtual, and traditional channels.

Over the last decade, Lisa’s team has engaged over 20,000 Cleveland Clinic caregivers in improvement by developing capability across the organization and building systems to support patients and caregivers. These initiatives include an integrated system of tiered daily huddles and an enterprise-wide improvement training program.

Lisa has authored over 150 manuscripts, articles, and book chapters in the fields of pathology and improvement. Her efforts have been recognized with multiple awards, including the Association of American Medical Colleges Clinical Care Innovation Challenge Award (2016), the Smart Culture Conference Buffalo Award (2018), and the Outstanding Innovation in Delivery Solutions Award (2020).

She serves on the Board of Directors for Lean Enterprise Institute and Catalysis. She speaks nationally and internationally on liver pathology and on the cultural and technical components of improvement.

Lisa received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame. She completed her medical degree, residency training in anatomic pathology, and a fellowship in gastrointestinal and liver pathology at the University of Chicago-Pritzker School of Medicine.