SANFORD—When Wendy Brandon passed the 1-year mark as CEO of Central Florida Regional Hospital, nobody was surprised that she had achieved many goals on her priority to-do list.

 

For example, Brandon wanted the hospital to become a mainstay on the short list of the nation's top-performing hospitals for key measures of quality.
"We're achieving results in the top 10 percent of all hospitals across the nation," said Brandon. "We measure and test everything. We don't want to just achieve the national average scores for quality; we want to exceed them."

 

Brandon didn't grow up thinking about pursuing a career in healthcare administration when she checked in after school with her mother, a PBX operator at the hometown hospital. But her family and friends knew she would definitely be a leader in her chosen field.

 

"My parents were both very hard-working, encouraging people who taught me early the importance of working hard and treating people fairly," said Brandon, the older of two children born to Jerry Holman, a regional manager for an insulation company, and Ann Vaughan. The family lived in Springfield, a small city in Tennessee located north of Nashville. "Gloria Snow, who was the only African-American teacher in my elementary school, made such an impression on me when I was in her second grade class. She pulled me aside one day and said, 'Honey, you can grow up to be anything you want to be—if you apply your talent and ability."

 

In high school, Brandon was voted Most Likely to Succeed. In college, she had an opportunity to develop leadership skills through various roles in her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi.

 

"I learned quite a bit my senior year as president of the sorority," said Brandon, who was recognized for those efforts at the national level with a leadership award. "Some people see sororities as little more than social networking venues, but that experience taught me volumes about leading other people."

 

Brandon initially entered the financial services arena after earning a business administration degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 1991.

 

"I graduated from college just after the Gulf War ended,and there weren't many opportunities in the financial services field," she said. "My first job was with my father-in-law, Charlie Brandon, a financial consultant in Nashville. Through networking, I learned about an opportunity to enter the healthcare field. Because my aunt and grandmother were nurses, and my mother had worked in that setting, I'd always been intrigued by hospitals. My first healthcare role required financial knowledge, an ability to build strong relationships with clinicians, and an understanding of the details of what they do to care for our patients."

 

Brandon embraced the opportunity to learn "a different but important skill set" and soon learned "there are no dumb questions." She returned to graduate school at night while working full time and earned an MBA from the Jack Massey School of Business at Belmont University. She later became board-certified in healthcare management by the American College of Healthcare Executives.

 

Leading the 226-bed Central Florida Regional Hospital is not Brandon's first CEO role. She joined Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) 15 years ago, serving as associate administrator at Centennial Medical Center, and then chief operating officer at Summit Medical Center, both located in Nashville. In June 2005, she was named CEO at Englewood Community Hospital in Englewood, Fla.

 

Now, Brandon is settled into the Sanford community, along with her husband, Chuck, a CPA, 6-year-old son, Winn, and their 4-year old daughter, Annabelle. She serves on the boards of the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce, Envision Seminole, and The Foundation of Seminole State College of Florida.