Jim Shmerling

President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Hospital Colorado
Ex-officio Board Member, Global Down Syndrome Foundation

Jim ShmerlingPrior to his current position, Jim Shmerling served as Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (2002-07); Senior Vice President, Methodist Healthcare; President of Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, Memphis, Tennessee (1995-02); and Le Bonheur’s Chief Operating Officer (1991-95).

Shmerling also served as Associate Director of Hospitals, Indiana University Hospitals, and Administrator, James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children (1987-91). His career in children’s hospitals began at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama (1979-87), where he last served as Associate Administrator.

Shmerling holds a BS degree in Public Health Education, University of Tennessee; MS degree in Hospital and Health Administration, University of Alabama, Birmingham; MBA, Stanford University, Birmingham; and PhD in Health Administration, Medical University of South Carolina.

Shmerling is a Fellow of the American College of Health Care Executives Fellow.  He is a Faculty Member of Hospital Administration programs for Washington University, University of Alabama, Birmingham, and Medical College of Virginia. He is also a Clinical Faculty Member, Vanderbilt School of Nursing.

Shmerling is on the board of the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome and a Board Member of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation. He is instrumental to the success of the Crnic Institute’s Anna and John J. Sie Center for Down Syndrome based out of the Children’s Hospital Colorado. In the fall of 2009, Shmerling launched Project SEARCH at the hospital, a school-to-work transition program for high school students who are differently-abled including students with Down syndrome.  The program’s first class of seven students graduated in May at the Children’s Hospital Colorado, where some of them will now be offered jobs.