Deborah Gordon is passionate about supporting good health, striving for equity, and empowering others – whether she’s at work or out in the community. 

Deborah is the executive vice president, chief administrative officer, and chief legal officer for Memorial Hermann Health System. In these roles, she leads several of Memorial Hermann’s corporate divisions, including legal, compliance, enterprise risk, privacy, IT security, information systems, government relations, and community benefit activities.

Memorial Hermann is one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in Texas, with approximately $7 billion in total operating annual revenue and more than 29,000 employees. It owns and operates 14 hospitals and has more than 270 care delivery sites, more than 6,500 affiliated physicians, a nationally acclaimed Accountable Care Organization, a health plan, and an academic affiliation with the McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. 

Deborah holds a Master of Business Administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Illinois College of Law. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in philosophy from the University of Illinois. Deborah is admitted to the Illinois and Texas Bar Associations and participates in the Texas Hospital Association’s Council on Policy Development. She is a Fellow of The American College of Healthcare Executives.

Starting her law career in Chicago, Deborah followed her passion for health care and became a healthcare attorney in private practice, rising to partner and earning her MBA. While there, she represented many types of healthcare companies, handling M&A, financial transactions, compliance, privacy, and regulatory matters.

Prior to joining Memorial Hermann, Deborah was partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago. She was vice-chair of the firm’s corporate department and cochair of the firm’s Health Law Group.  

Deborah has thirty years of experience in health care, with progressively increasing leadership positions and focus areas including governance, health care business operations, technology, legal, compliance, enterprise risk, human resources, communications, marketing, real estate, strategy, health policy and more. Deborah has a solid track record of building high-performing teams, managing through change, and achieving positive financial and operational results. 

Meanwhile, Deborah makes it her mission to promote and expand leadership opportunities for women in health care, an industry that is 75 percent female. She has championed and mentored other women, helping hire and promote them into leadership roles, and she ardently supports all efforts to ensure Memorial Hermann is an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce. 

Deborah’s work helps Memorial Hermann reliably achieve outstanding employee and customer satisfaction survey results. She has been a dedicated leader for the Houston community and has worked tirelessly to increase access to care across our region.

Deborah serves on a number of corporate boards: Children at Risk (executive committee); Holocaust Museum Houston (chair of Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusivity committee); Global Board of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association; Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce; Hermann Eye Fund; Ignite Healthcare Network (steering committee); Memorial Hermann Community Benefit Corporation; Memorial Hermann Health Insurance Co.; Memorial Hermann Health Plan, Inc.; and Memorial Hermann Information Exchange. She also serves on Memorial Hermann Division Quality Committees and Memorial Hermann Benefits Committee, which she chairs. 

In recognition of her service to the community, Deborah was recently recognized nationally as one of Modern Healthcare’s 2022 Top Women Leaders in Healthcare to Watch and locally as one of the Houston Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business.

It is for all the reasons mentioned above, and many more, that Deborah Gordon has been named a Top 20 Inspiring Woman Impact Maker for 2023.