Julie Cerese leads performance management programs and solutions delivery for Vizient. In this role, she oversees quality, safety and clinical leadership programs, technical sales and solution delivery, and data science and member insights. Having begun her career in nursing, Cerese has focused the majority of her professional work on clinical quality and performance improvement. She has conducted extensive studies on the factors that differentiate top performers and works with clinicians and health system executives to achieve their objectives regarding organizational performance and patient experience. In addition, she is the author of many journal articles on quality, performance improvement and clinical topics. Cerese previously led the University HealthSystem Consortium’s extensive performance improvement products and services. She oversaw its Intelligence™ suite of performance improvement platforms, including informatics, analytics, quality programs and research, and nursing and physician leadership activities. Cerese also provided direction for the Quality and Accountability Study, which was the basis for the nationally recognized Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award, presented by Vizient to the top-performing academic medical centers each year. Cerese’s substantial knowledge of clinical quality improvement was supplemented by her role as director of quality and infection control at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she leveraged her clinical quality improvement experience. Prior to that, she served as senior director of University HealthSystem Consortium’s clinical process improvement area. Cerese holds a doctorate from Loyola University with a focus on interprofessional education and collaboration. She also holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in nursing, both from the Loyola University Chicago Niehoff School of Nursing.