Effective Monday, February 26th, Melinda Schmidt will join WashU IT as the new Assistant Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff to CIO Jessie Minton. Schmidt will assume the role currently held by Russell Sharp who is retiring in the coming months after 5 years of service. Sharp will help ease Schmidt’s transition over the next few months.
Schmidt comes to WashU IT with nearly 20 years of professional experience in health care, business, and information technology. She spent four years as a project manager to the Chief Executive Officer for Ascension’s Amita Health System in Chicago and a year as an Information Systems Manager at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago from 2016-2017. Schmidt then spent 2 years at Centene Corporation in St. Louis as a Technical Manager of Business Operations and Director of Provider Strategy. She has held several director-level positions at Ascension Health in St. Louis since 2019, including Chief of Staff in the Office of the CIO. Currently she is the Director of Enterprise Applications Program Management, a position she has held since 2022.
As a Six Sigma Green Belt with SAFe Agile, Epic, and Disney Leadership Excellence certifications, Schmidt brings a breadth of knowledge, skills, and abilities to this role. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Planning and Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Science in Information Systems with a specialization in Management from Northwestern University.
Schmidt has a reputation for driving transformation and execution across the enterprise to achieve strategic goals. Throughout her career, she has taken pride in building high-performing teams and developing relationships built on trust. She will lead IT Finance and Administration, IT Governance, Portfolio and Project Management, and Service Management, managing the functions of strategy, planning, and administration and offering leadership, facilitating the cross-functional management of information and technology.
In the role of Chief of Staff, Schmidt will serve as a trusted advisor, working closely with the Senior Leadership Team to ensure a consistent, strategic approach to applying information technology across the university.