Jennifer Olson

Jennifer M. Olson is a highly regarded, award winning health care executive best known for her strategic leadership in driving enterprise health care solutions.

Jennifer currently is the Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, reporting to the CEO of Children's Minnesota. Since joining in 2001, she has been honored to serve pediatric patients and families for over 21 years.

As the Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer oversees vital areas of health system operations, including inpatient, ambulatory, diagnostic services, pharmacy, contracting, planning and execution, value and clinical excellence, and marketing/communications. She also provides strategic and operational oversight of the Mother Baby Fetal, Cardiovascular and Neurosciences Institutes.

Prior to this role, Jennifer served as Senior Vice President of System Operations and Chief Strategy Officer, for Children’s Minnesota. From 2010-2015, she was the Vice President of Operations for the Mother Baby Clinical Service Line, a collaboration between Children’s Minnesota and Allina Health.

Jennifer began her professional life as a graduate student in the Management Engineering department with the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics, and from there launched into a role with Deloitte Consulting. As a Senior Consultant with Deloitte, Jennifer worked on engagements in the Health & Strategy Practice.

Jennifer earned her MBA with a focus in Management and Health Care, and an undergraduate degree in Finance, both from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Jennifer is a national board member for the International Society for Pediatric Innovation (iSPI), a board member for the Women’s Health Leadership TRUST and chair of the Leadership Development Committee, a board member on the Ronald McDonald House Charities, as chair of the Programming Committee and a member of the Governance Committee. Jennifer is a member of the Minnesota chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and a long-standing member of the Society for Health Care Strategy and Market Development (SHSMD). She is a member of the current faculty for a Healthcare Certificate program with the University of Wisconsin School of Business, and serves on a healthcare steering committee commissioned by the Dean to design a new professional MBA in Healthcare.

Honored as a 2018 (Real) Power 50 award winner by the Minnesota Business magazine, the award recognized her as one of the “50 most influential people to know in the Twin Cities, and a lynchpin in the industry”. Jennifer was also recognized as one of the 2018 “Top Women in Business” by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her husband Jon and golden retrievers Tigger and Timber. Her interests include Badger and Packer games, boating on the Mississippi River, downhill skiing, and mystery novels.

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