Dr. David Brown to Lead Cooley Dickinson Health Care as Interim President, CEO

NORTHAMPTON — Dr. David Brown has begun serving as the interim president and CEO at Cooley Dickinson Health Care. Brown steps in to lead the organization after Joanne Marqusee announced her resignation in January following seven years of service to Cooley Dickinson.

Brown, chief of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), will serve in an interim capacity while a search is conducted for a permanent president and CEO. The search process will be aligned with the Mass General Brigham United Against Racism priority and will include a diverse search committee and slate of candidates for consideration.

“We are so fortunate that Dr. Brown has enthusiastically agreed to serve as interim president and CEO,” said Fraser Beede, chair of the Cooley Dickinson Health Care board of trustees. “Dr. Brown’s personal and professional connections to Cooley Dickinson, along with his leadership experience and position at the MGH, offer Cooley Dickinson an extremely capable, respected leader during the transition.”

Brown, who has been a member of the Cooley Dickinson Health Care board of trustees since the Northampton hospital joined the MGH family in 2013, said he was excited by the opportunity to lead Cooley Dickinson. “I’ve seen the progress this organization made under Joanne Marqusee’s leadership, and I’m looking forward to building on her legacy.”

Beede and MGH President Dr. Peter Slavin agreed that the ideal interim CEO would know the community; be knowledgeable about Cooley Dickinson as well as the MGH, which are both part of the Mass General Brigham system; have management and leadership experience; and be willing to serve in an interim capacity.

“I have worked closely with David for many years in his leadership roles at the MGH,” Slavin said. “David is someone who is a wise, thoughtful and creative decision maker and problem solver. I am looking forward to working with him in his new capacity at Cooley.”

Brown will continue to oversee the MGH Department of Emergency Medicine as well as maintain his major administrative and committee roles at both MGH and Mass General Brigham. To ensure a smooth handoff of responsibilities, he has been meeting with Marqusee and the Cooley Dickinson senior leadership since Marqusee’s announcement.

“It has meant a lot to me, as someone who grew up in the Pioneer Valley, to serve as a trustee — and now as interim president and CEO — in support of the community that I love and where much of my family still lives,” he said.

After receiving his undergraduate degree at Princeton and then his medical degree at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1989, Brown began his career in emergency medicine as an intern at MGH, later becoming vice chair, then department chair. He is the MGH trustees professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a diplomate of both the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine, and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. He has also served for many years as the physician for the New England Patriots.