By: DoM Communications
This month’s Chair’s Spotlight features Emily Senarian, MHA, our new AVP Chief Administrative Officer in the Department of Medicine.
For Emily, a career in health administration was not her original plan. In college, she began as a Communications major with aspirations of going into the field of journalism. However, her career path changed because of a personal experience with her grandmother, who lived with her family during Emily’s childhood. “She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and it unfortunately got to the point where we could no longer care for her in the home environment, and my parents had made a difficult decision to put her in a nursing home,” shared Emily. “My experience visiting her in the nursing home shaped my desire to want to understand and improve the experience for patients and families, so I switched my major and focused on long-term care administration.”
Emily earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in health administration from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, and comes to UMass Memorial Health and UMass Chan Medical School with more than 15 years of progressive leadership experience in academic medical centers, most recently serving as Vice President for Medical Services and Ambulatory Performance at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. In this role, she provided executive oversight for the Department of Medicine at Lahey, leading strategic, operational, and financial initiatives across 17 specialties, multiple fellowship programs, and numerous procedural services. She also spearheaded major initiatives such as the renovations of the Division of Radiation Oncology, ambulatory access redesign, and a financial turnaround strategy for outpatient operations. In addition, she played a critical leadership role during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as Incident Commander and executing an ambulatory reopening and recovery strategy. As a passionate mentor and innovator, Emily also launched Lahey's inaugural administrative fellowship program and has championed initiatives focused on workforce development, patient experience, and system integration across the Beth Israel Lahey Health network.
Before stepping into her vice president role, Emily served in several leadership positions at Lahey, including Administrative Director, Service Line Director of Ambulatory Medical Specialties, and Executive Director of Ambulatory Medical Specialties. In these roles, she provided leadership to the divisions of Allergy and Immunology, Dermatology and Mohs Surgery, Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, Medical Infusion, Medical Weight Loss, Nephrology and Acute Dialysis, Rheumatology, Hospital Medicine and Infectious Disease
Before joining Lahey, Emily served as a Practice Manager in the Emergency Department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she oversaw operations and personnel for the Registration, Unit Coordinator, and Patient Liaison staff. In this role, she specifically managed recruitment, onboarding, and performance management services within the department.
In her new role within the Department of Medicine, Emily will partner closely with leadership from UMass Chan and UMass Memorial Medical Group to support various departmental operations. “Over the past couple of months, I have been taking the opportunity to learn, listen, and really understand how things operate here,” said Emily. “It was really important to me when I first started to understand the priorities for the Department of Medicine and some of the barriers and challenges that the department faces.” Recently, Emily has been working with department leadership to distribute the caregiver survey, analyze results, and meet with each division to review the collected data.
Over the next several months, Emily looks forward to pursuing various ambulatory initiatives and building strong relationships with her colleagues and stakeholders, drawing on her previous experience while continuing to learn. “It’s been exciting for me to be able to share my experience, but also really learn about the structure of the organization, especially around research and education. I’m eager to continue to learn and grow in these areas, there’s so many exciting things happening here,” said Emily.
We are excited to welcome Emily to our leadership team and look forward to the vision and expertise she will bring to the department!