After a three-month search, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) has named Wylecia Wiggs Harris, Ph.D., as its new chief executive officer.
Harris previously served as the CEO for the League of Women Voters of the United States and the League of Women Voters Education Fund, an organization that fights voter suppression and advocates for voting rights.
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Prior to that appointment, Harris spent more than a decade in healthcare, working as the executive director for the Center for American Nurses and serving as the chief of staff and the chief operating officer at the American Nurses Association where she provided executive leadership for a variety of divisions including information technology. She also served as senior vice president and executive director at the American Heart Association.
She will begin her appointment on Feb. 5, AHIMA said in an announcement.
“[Harris] has a strong track record for creating high-performing teams, strengthening membership, and fostering internal and external partnerships to support the missions of the organizations she served,” AHIMA Board President and Chair Diann H. Smith said in the announcement. “The AHIMA board of directors sought an executive with experience leading associations with multimillion-dollar operating budgets, and we look forward to working with Dr. Harris to be a powerful voice and advocate for AHIMA and the health information management profession.”
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Harris said she plans to work with AHIMA leadership to “grow and strengthen membership” at a time when the health information technology sector—and the healthcare industry at large—are “experiencing rapid change.”
The appointment comes six months after former CEO Lynn Thomas Gordan abruptly left the organization last summer. AHIMA’s Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Pamela L. Lane has been serving as interim CEO.