Dennis W. Pullin
President & CEO
Virtua Health
Dennis W. Pullin is president and CEO of Virtua Health, a not-for-profit integrated health system in New Jersey, offering a full continuum of preventative, primary, ambulatory, acute and tertiary care across more than 300 locations.
In 2020 and 2018, Modern Healthcare recognized Mr. Pullin as one of the nation’s Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare. In 2019, the Philadelphia Business Journal (PBJ) honored Mr. Pullin with the Most Admired CEO award. PBJ also named him to the Power 100 list of most influential people in the region for the past four years. He was chosen as one of South Jersey Biz’s 50 Most Influential Leaders for four consecutive years (2018-2021). In 2018, Mr. Pullin received the Distinguished Healthcare Leadership Award from the National Association of Health Services Executives. In December 2021, the All Things Are Possible (ATAP) Foundation honored Mr. Pullin with the Courageous Leadership Award, in part for his advocacy of the COVID-19 vaccine among communities of color.
Mr. Pullin came to Virtua in 2017 from the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, MD area where he had been president of MedStar Harbor Hospital and senior vice president of MedStar Health. Prior to leading MedStar Harbor, he was senior vice president and chief operating officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Pullin’s extensive background includes many executive leadership positions in hospitals, academic medical centers, physician group practices, and private industry. He was vice president of Operations and Business Development at St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston and vice president of Acquisitions and Development at Symbion Healthcare, Inc.
A Fellow and past Regent of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Mr. Pullin serves on both the American Hospital Association and the New Jersey Hospital Association Board of Trustees. He is a past chair of the American Hospital Association’s Governance Council for Metropolitan Hospitals and a past member of the Maryland Hospital Association’s Council on Legislative and Regulatory Policy. He is a current member of the Economic and Community Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and serves on the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey Regional Board of Directors. His board service with numerous non-profit community and civic organizations includes Healthcare for the Homeless, Houston Regional HIV/AIDS Resource Group, American Heart Association, DePelchin Children's Center, and the College of Health Professions at Towson University, among others.
Mr. Pullin serves as host for the Here for Good podcast, where he engages in meaningful conversations with transformational leaders about how they create a positive impact on the world around them.
Mr. Pullin has served as an adjunct professor at Texas Lutheran University and Towson University and has presented and published a wide variety of papers and articles. A past Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, he is a Hall of Fame Inductee of the Edgewood Independent School District, San Antonio, Texas.
Mr. Pullin earned a Bachelor of Arts at Texas Lutheran University and a Master of Science at Texas A&M University.