Jennifer Greenman, VP of IT & CIO, Moffitt Cancer Center, Chapter 3

When a great opportunity comes along, you don’t pass it up — even if it happened much sooner than anticipated. That’s the mindset Jennifer Greenman adopted when, in September of 2014, she was promoted to CIO at Moffitt Cancer Center when Mark Hulse took on the role of Chief Administrative Officer. The plan for Greenman, who was hired as senior director of application services, was to succeed Hulse eventually, and so even though it was an accelerated path, it was still one she happily took. In this interview, she talks about the innovative work being done through the Total Cancer Care initiative, the proactive approach she takes with security education, how Moffitt hopes to continue to improve patient engagement, and the biggest challenge in stepping into the CIO role.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* Competing for IT talent

* Coming to Moffitt as applications director

* Succeeding Mark Hulse — “It was an ideal situation.”

* The CIO learning curve

* Strong leadership — “It has been essential for my own success.”

* An environment of trust



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Bold Statements

This was a great opportunity to work for Mark Hulse, someone that I had known previously and always held in very high regard.

My specialty in IT has always been more on the applications and projects area. So I think that in some respects, learning the key concepts, the key terminology, and best practices as it relates to infrastructure was a real learning curve for me.

The key to any CIO’s success is having strong, independent leaders on their team who they can entrust to perform their role with a high degree of confidence. I would say in my own career it has been essential for my own success.

As a leader, I value trust above nearly all other qualities. It’s important that I trust the leaders and team members within my organization to perform their role independently with a high degree of competence. It’s equally important that I conduct all my professional and personal interactions in a manner that creates an environment of trust.

Gamble:  When you talk about competition in the area, is it a lot of healthcare organizations or just in general IT as well?

Greenman:  We face competition at both levels. Within some of our more specialized or healthcare-oriented roles, we do have a number of other very prominent and successful healthcare organizations in the region that tend to recruit similar types of skills sets — for example, Cerner applications analysts. But we also compete certainly across all industries for more technical skills sets, and that can be a real challenge at times for us.

Gamble:  That’s definitely been a common theme in health IT, especially when you’re talking about the people who have that experience or certifications especially.

Greenman:  Exactly. And of course, living in Tampa is not a bad place to be, right? So the good news is we have a lot of people who are interested in relocating down to this region, and that does help us with recruitment.

Gamble:  Yeah, I can imagine. Northeast winters are not fun.

Greenman:  No.

Gamble:  Now, when did you start with the organization?

Greenman:  I started working at Moffitt in July of 2013.

Gamble:  And that was in what role?

Greenman:  I started as the senior director of application services.

Gamble:  And then at what point did you assume the CIO role?

Greenman:  In September of 2014, I was promoted to CIO.