Dr. Susan Turney, MD, MS, FACP, FACMPE, was born and raised in Mellen, Wisconsin, and her rural roots carried her through her entire life, and in large part inspired her ascent as one of the top rural health care thought leaders in the nation. After more than two decades spent as a practicing internal medicine physician, Dr. Turney entered the health care leadership space.

Dr. Turney was CEO and executive VP of the Wisconsin Medical Society from 2004-11. She then assumed the role of president and CEO of Medical Group Management Association, the leading association for medical group practice administrators and executives, from 2011-14. She recently retired as CEO of Marshfield Clinic Health System, serving in that role from September 2014-September 2023.

She is recognized as a national thought leader and expert in rural health care, strategic planning,  executive management and external relations. Modern Healthcare has recognized Dr. Turney several times as both one of the nation’s 50 Most Influential Physician/Clinical Executives and one of the 100 Most Influential People in all of health care.

In her role as the chair of the E-Health Initiative (eHI) board of directors, Dr. Turney has been at the forefront of thinking about how technology can be applied to the health care space. Advancing knowledge about social determinants of health also has been a key focus during Dr. Turney’s time leading Marshfield Clinic Health System. Dr. Turney also has been a vocal leader in the health equity, diversity and inclusion space.

Under her leadership, Marshfield launched organizational and community assessment surveys to better understand health equity gaps in our service area; formed a partnership with the Cross Cultural Health Care Program to help bridge language and cultural barriers in health care; partnered with NOWPOW, a Chicago-based technology company, to address social determinants of health for our patients; and invested heavily to build our health equity, diversity and inclusion team internally.

Dr. Turney graduated from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. She completed her internal medicine residency at Marshfield Clinic Health System and earned a master’s degree in administrative medicine from UW-Madison.