Susan R. DeVore, ’81

Distinguished Alumna Award

Susan DeVore is a role model. She is passionate about healthcare, weaving social responsibility into the fabric and mission of the company she leads, and is vocal about her dedication to her family. Her success as a female CEO – while maintaining her personal life – encourages many to aspire to follow in her footsteps.

“Susan is inspirational,” says nominator and current Alumni Association Board of Directors member Amber Harrison. “Many CEOs can be charismatic, transformational, smart, dedicated – all attributes that Susan possesses – but she inspires.”

Susan began her career as an Advanced Staff Consultant to the Manager of Healthcare Practice at Ernst & Young, LLC. After working as Director of Finance for Mercy Hospital, she returned to Ernst & Young, rising through the ranks to Vice President & Sector Leader for Manufacturing and High Tech Media/Entertainment.

In 2003, Susan joined Premier, a Charlotte-based health solutions company. She was promoted to CEO in 2009 and currently serves as President and CEO. The company focuses on reducing healthcare costs, improving care and boosting efficiency for 3,400 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 health care providers.

Under Susan’s leadership, Premier has been widely recognized for building an industry-leading code of ethics, has been named nine times as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for management, and has been named four times to the InformationWeek 500 list of the top technology innovators in the nation.

Susan has been recognized both in North Carolina and nationally for her work to improve the health of communities: Charlotte Business Journal’s Top 25 Women in Business in 2007; Business Leader of the Year from Charlotte’s Business Leader Magazine in 2010; one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare in 2005, 2013, and 2015; the Champion for Change award in recognition of her leadership in advancing environmental best practices in healthcare from 2013-2015; and, most recently, by 2020 Women on Boards for having 25% of women board leaders in 2016.

Her involvement with UNC Charlotte – from her current role on the Board of Trustees to previous roles on advisory boards – encourages many Premier employees and alumni to donate, on average, over 200 hours yearly through job shadowing, guest lectures, student projects, classroom presentations, student groups, as board members and more.

Steve Ott, Dean of the Belk College of Business, says of Susan, “She indeed brings honor to her profession
and her alma mater.”