Kate Schmitz

A proven healthcare industry leader with more than 20 years of progressive experience, Kate Schmitz serves healthcare clients across the country as a senior strategist and leadership consultant for executive search, team development, and succession planning initiatives on behalf of the firm’s national healthcare practice. Kate brings a broad range of experience as a health system planning executive and key strategic leader in some of the nation’s premier healthcare systems, where she built new teams and new divisions, connecting and driving strategy and operations for positive results, and earning repeated recognition for having the highest employee engagement, retention, and performance across the system. Kate’s extensive experience and skills with hospital boards and senior executives, clinical service line teams, and physician groups are a distinct advantage to the firm’s healthcare client portfolio.

Clients appreciate Kate’s depth of understanding of healthcare leadership needs and her deep and thorough assessment of potential candidates for technical capabilities as well as cultural fit. Candidates placed as a result of Kate’s highly interactive and customizable search facilitation process are proven to grow volume and market share, develop effective, market-differentiating clinical programs, and build strong physician relationships and alignment. Prior to joining Wheless Partners, Kate served as a key strategic executive and trusted advisor to the system CEO on behalf of an award-winning six-hospital healthcare system, where she drove strategic planning and business support for one of the nation’s Top 15 Health Systems. Additionally, Kate served in key-to-the-mission leadership roles strengthening financial and market positions, facilitating strategic planning for clinical services, and elevating operational performance on behalf of other major healthcare systems. Kate earned the MHA, Health Administration from the University of South Carolina and the BA in Health Administration from Auburn University.