Donald Kennerly, MD, PhD

Senior HRO Expert

Dr. Don Kennerly is a physician leader who has focused half of his 35-year career on improving the quality and safety of patient care.  After medical school and residency training, he served as a full-time faculty member in the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center where he taught students and residents and did basic science research.  He brought the concepts of patient-centered disease management in the redesign of ambulatory care for 20,000 patients in the Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, TX.  

Seeing both the power and failings of healthcare led to executive work at the Baylor Health Care system where he developed Baylor’s Office of Patient Safety that oversaw a diverse portfolio of programs across its 12 hospitals and 100+ ambulatory care sites, contributed to the national literature related measuring injury during inpatient care, and guided a variety of other quality and business intelligence activities at Baylor as its Chief Quality Officer.  

After leaving executive work, Dr. Kennerly has spent the last three years sharing ‘lessons learned’ with consulting clients committed to the journey of delivering care that we’d all want for our own families. 
Don received a BA from Harvard College and MD and PhD degrees from Washington University in St. Louis where he also did his internal Medicine residency.  He has published 50 papers or book chapters, received a variety of awards, served on Federal and regional advisory committees, and served as a founding Board member of two patient-centered nonprofit organizations.