Alumni Profile - Sameer Shah

Sameer Shah’s Rise to the Top: President’s Success is Rooted in His Pharmacy Training and His Ability to Connect with Others

Talk to anyone who knows Sameer Shah, President of the Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago, and they’ll tell you he’s a natural leader.

“Great leaders have a gift for making the people around them feel seen and heard, and Sameer has always done that. You can sense that he really wants to talk to you—he’s not doing it because he has to or because he feels like he should. He’s genuinely curious about what you have to say,” says one of Shah’s early mentors, Andrew Donnelly. Donnelly currently serves as Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Executive Director of Pharmacy Services at UI Health.

Shah earned his PharmD from the UIC College of Pharmacy, now the Retzky College of Pharmacy, in 2003. He worked for 8 years as a clinical pharmacist at UIC Medical Center and earned his Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) from the UIC School of Public Health in 2012.

As an MHA candidate, Shah was required to participate in a preceptorship program, which gave students the opportunity to learn from health care administrators in the workplace. Shah hoped to land a preceptorship at UIC, where he was already working and taking classes.

“I loved UIC. My father had a long career there as a toxicologist, so it already felt like home,” says Shah. But Benn Greenspan, who directed the UIC MHA program, had previously served as CEO of Sinai Health System, and he pushed Shah to think bigger. “He wanted me to look beyond pharmacy and consider healthcare leadership,” says Shah.

Greenspan set up an introductory meeting between Shah and Sinai’s leaders, including Karen Teitelbaum, who was serving as the COO and would later become the system CEO. “That meeting was a real pivot point in my career,” says Shah.

Shah began his preceptorship at Sinai, learning about Teitelbaum’s day-to-day responsibilities and attending board meetings. “I picked up a lot in those meetings. I listened closely as the CEO, CFO, and CMO outlined the strategies they were executing and the barriers they were working to overcome,” says Shah. “It was my first real exposure to how clinical care, operations, community needs, and finances all connect—and how leadership has to balance those priorities in real time.”

Like Donnelly, Teitelbaum noticed how Shah paid attention and engaged with others. “Sameer embodied humility and confidence at the same time, always having an open mind and thinking about things from the viewpoints of others,” she says.

When Shah was finishing his master’s program, Teitelbaum offered him a job as Sinai’s Pharmacy Operations Manager. He embraced the managerial position but didn’t give up his clinical role entirely.

“The best advice I got from Andy [Donnelly] when I moved into management was ‘don’t lose touch with the work.’ So I kept a weekly shift in the pharmacy. That time on the floor helped me build credibility, stay grounded, and better understand what my team was facing every day,” he says.

Shah’s boots-on-the-ground perspective led to his first big success as a manager. It started when he noticed that the automated pharmacy carousel and inventory system wasn’t being used to its fullest capacity.

“I started talking with the pharmacists and techs to find out what was preventing them from using it more. The system was still fairly new, so was this a training issue,or something else?” Shah recognized two-way communication was essential. “I needed to understand the staff’s concerns and address them. At the same time, I needed to communicate my vision and get people to see how automation could help make their jobs better.”

His approach worked, and the staff learned to embrace automation. As a result, efficiency shot up and staff could spend more time talking to patients.

That change and others like it helped Shah save Mount Sinai more than $1 million in costs just 18 months, all while improving safety and outcomes for patients. Administrators took notice and tapped him to take on other divisions, including respiratory, neurodiagnostics, and the sleep and pulmonary function lab.

While Shah found the transition was challenging, his experience in pharmacy operations had prepared him. “What I discovered was that the principles I used to lead in pharmacy—structure, systems thinking, staff engagement—were just as relevant in other clinical areas,” he says. “It was the moment I realized I could lead beyond my original discipline.”

Teitelbaum, who now works as an executive coach, wasn’t surprised by Sameer’s success. “I always said that if Sameer was in charge of a department, division, or project, I could turn my attention elsewhere, because I knew whatever Sameer was handling would have an excellent outcome.”

As his successes continued, Shah’s responsibilities expanded. In 2020,

he was promoted to System Vice President of Professional and Clinical Services, and in 2023, he stepped into his current role as President. This past spring, he was awarded the Healthcare Leadership Regent’s Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Chicago Health Executives Forum.

Shah says he’s humbled to serve as President of the same hospital where Teitelbaum and other leaders inspired him so many years ago. His appreciation extends to Dr. Ngozi Ezike, current system CEO of Sinai Chicago. "Her trust and belief in me has meant a great deal. Ultimately, her support is what allowed me to step into my role as president."

Shah is also quick to credit Mount Sinai staff, and he regularly makes rounds in various departments so he can talk to employees directly. “I really want to give staff an opportunity to show me what’s going on in their day-to-day work,” he says. “I want to hear what’s going well, what’s not going well, and ideas for making things better. And when we have successes, I want to celebrate them.”

While Shah is focused on Mount Sinai’s continued growth, he maintains ties with UIC. He comes back regularly to speak P2 and P3 students enrolled in the College’s Pharmacy Practice Leadership course, which his former mentor—and now respected peer—Donnelly coteaches. Donnelly says, “By sharing his experience, Sameer shows our students that the sky's the limit with respect to what they might do in health care.”

SHAH IS QUICK TO CREDIT MOUNT SINAI STAFF, AND HE REGULARLY MAKES ROUNDS IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS SO HE CAN TALK TO EMPLOYEES DIRECTLY.

Pharmacy Is a Family Affair for Shah

Pharmacy runs deep in my family,” says Sameer Shah, President of Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in Chicago. He notes his wife, two brothers, and sister-in-law all have PharmDs, and they all studied at UIC at some point during their education. Shah’s wife, Annu (PharmD ’04), is a specialty pharmacist, caring for patients with complex diseases. His middle brother, Amit, was a UI Health Clinical Staff Pharmacist for eight years and now works as an informatics pharmacist for the Veterans Health Administration. His youngest brother, Rahul, and his wife, Michelle, work as directors in market access and marketing within the biotech industry. “A PharmD is a very versatile degree, and my family is the perfect example of that.” His youngest brother, Rahul, and his wife, Michelle, work as directors in market access and marketing within the biotech industry. “A PharmD is a very versatile degree, and my family is the perfect example of that.”