Commencement 2021

Honorary Degree Recipients

Eileen Voynick is a highly regarded entrepreneur and dedicated education advocate. A 1986 graduate of Philadelphia University, Mrs. Voynick is a noted philanthropist with a passion and dedication to improving education programs. She continues to support our students with the generous funding of the Eileen Martinson ’86 Fund to support the undergraduate capstone experience in DEC. The tremendous reach and impact of the fund enables a multitude of creative careers to get off to a promising start.

Mrs. Voynick is a member of the Board of Directors of CDK Global (Hoffman Estates, IL) and r3 (London). She is also the Chair of the Board of AGS Health (PA). She was an Independent Director of Advanced MD (Salt Lake City UT) during their ownership by Marlin Equity. The business was successfully sold in 2018 to Global Payments.

Mrs. Voynick served as the Academic Board Chair of Thomas Jefferson University and the former Philadelphia University for a combined total of eight years. The innovative merger of the two universities occurred during her term. She continued to serve as a Trustee of Thomas Jefferson until June 2020.

Mrs. Voynick is the former CEO of Sparta Systems, a leading provider of enterprise quality management software solutions, where she provided focused vision, leadership and strategic direction.
During her tenure Sparta transformed itself from a steady state to accelerated growth company, doubling revenue, while maintaining strong profitability. Further, Mrs. Voynick led a competitive and successful transaction in 2014 that resulted in the company’s sale to leading private equity firm Thoma Bravo. In 2017 she led a second transaction where New Mountain Capital purchased a majority share of Sparta.

Prior to joining Sparta, Mrs. Voynick was already a highly successful enterprise software industry executive, known for her ability to implement change leading to profitable growth and increased company valuation. As the Chief Operating Officer of Allscripts, a provider of clinical software, information and connectivity solutions for physicians, Mrs. Voynick drove significant growth in profits and revenue and developed an extensive product portfolio. She was also instrumental in helping the company to successfully merge with Eclipsys, a $1.3 billion transaction.

In addition, Mrs. Voynick was an Executive Vice President at SAP during its formative hyper growth years in the mid-1990’s, improving revenue from $100 million to more than a $1 billion. In the mid-2000’s, as Siebel Systems’ Senior Vice President of Global Services, she had general manager responsibility and helped to create the Customer Experience Blueprint Program, which was later issued a U.S. patent. She subsequently joined Oracle’s North American executive team as the Senior Vice President of Americas Consulting, a more than $1 billion organization with over 5,000 employees.

Mrs. Voynick continues to mentor young women with a passion for their growth and development as future global leaders and entrepreneurs.

Enterprise Vice President of Infection Control

Kelly Zabriskie, MLS, BS, CIC, is the Enterprise Vice President of Infection Control at Jefferson Health and has been Board Certified in Infection Prevention and Control since 2009. She is a Past President of the Philadelphia-Delaware Valley APIC chapter.  She  has presented at various national APIC conferences over the past several years as well.  She has most recently been appointed to the HAI Advisory Panel for the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority.

Last December, Ms. Zabriskie was honored with the inaugural Faegre Drinker Healthcare Hero Award at the 2020 Jefferson Gala.

Ms. Zabriskie began working around the clock on COVID-19 back in January of 2020. There’s no doubt: Her tireless work, clear thinking, and leadership saved lives.

Ms. Zabriskie’s unique expertise buoyed Jefferson Health and Thomas Jefferson University beyond our emergency response. She participated in a $34 million grant that allowed Jefferson to provide safety services to over 300 nursing homes in our region.  Ms Zabriskie also provided key insights for businesses around the globe through our partnership with Aramark to develop EverSafeOS. Perhaps most importantly, Ms. Zabriskie helped keep us safe as verified by Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s rise to No. 21 in the Vizient national rankings and improvements in our Leapfrog safety grade.

Ms. Zabriskie is a leader who exemplifies Jefferson’s values of putting people first, being bold and thinking differently, and doing the right thing. In a year like no other, her leadership has brought courage, clarity and calm to these unprecedented times.

Ms. Zabriskie holds a Masters in Legal Studies from The Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law and BS in Biology from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

Connelly Foundation Chief Nurse Executive Officer

As CNEO, Dr. FitzPatrick collaborates closely with enterprise leadership, system nursing SVPs, the president of Jefferson Medical Group, and local hospital-based presidents, CNOs, and CMOs to ensure the delivery of high-quality patient care, education and leading-edge research and treatment. 

Dr. FitzPatrick has served as our system SVP for Nursing Practice & Clinical Development. Among her many accomplishments, she led the system-wide strategic plan for standardization of nursing practice and clinical development, has been a key partner for system quality and safety efforts as part of our On Point program, and has leveraged key partnerships with regional academic partners to optimize student placements. Dr. FitzPatrick has also provided crucial leadership to our Incident Command Center for our COVID-19 response, including practice changes, PPE strategies and policies to support patients and family-centered care. 

Prior to joining Jefferson in 2019, Dr. FitzPatrick served four years at the University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) in Burlington as SVP/Chief Nursing Officer and Associate Dean, Academic & Practice Integration, UVM College of Nursing & Health Sciences. She drove performance improvements that advanced patient care, strengthened nursing professional practice, health network strategy and quality outcomes, enabling UVMMC to rank consistently in the top quartile in UHC/Vizient Quality Performance.

Throughout her career, Dr. FitzPatrick has held positions of expansive scope and responsibility. As a senior Clinical Director, Nursing Operations at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and then as Clinical Director Nursing for Women’s Health and Neurosciences, Dr. FitzPatrick had operational accountability for eight acute care units and provided strategic leadership for the expansion of Women’s Health services and the Neurosciences service line. She continues in her role as appraiser for the Magnet Recognition Program of the American Nurses Credentialing Center, where she provides expert review of organizations seeking Magnet designation/re-designation.  Kate is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and currently serves on the Academy’s finance committee.

Dr. FitzPatrick earned her Bachelors of Science in Nursing at the University of Delaware, Masters of Science in Nursing, Clinical Nurse Specialist at Widener University. She completed a post master’s certificate from the University of Pennsylvania as an acute care nurse practitioner, and earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University.

Andrew J. Norton, MD, was senior vice president and chief medical officer for Main Line Health, a role he maintained until last July, when he stopped working due to health issues. Dr. Norton died last September of complications from a rare autoimmune disease.

Dr. Norton was a true partner to Thomas Jefferson University and our students, through his commitment to quality education and ongoing advocacy of quality student experience.  Dr. Norton’s generosity to the students embodied the spirit of the JMC alumnus.

Dr. Norton, or “Andy,” as he insisted his colleagues and patients call him, was the son of a physician and followed his father into the medical profession. He trained at Jefferson Medical College and then spent three decades as an internist and professor of medicine in Wisconsin before returning to the Philadelphia area. As Main Line Health’s leading physician, he pushed for safer, better, equitable, and patient-centered medicine in the system’s five hospitals and one drug-and-alcohol treatment center.

Dr. Norton helped countless staffers and patients at the medical center, where people saw him as a mentor and as someone who was easy to listen to. After earning his medical degree, he attended the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, where he completed his residency in internal medicine and later served as Professor of Clinical Medicine and as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Froedtert Hospital.

In addition to being a teacher, Dr. Norton never stopped reading and going to conferences, and delighted in discussing medical journal articles with others.

When the coronavirus struck last year, Dr. Norton led Main Line Health’s response. Despite the uncertainty prevalent at the outset of the crisis, he remained focused on the medical care for the community while ensuring the safety of Main Line Health’s employees and medical staff.

With the education that Andy received at Jefferson, he was able to apply his broad-based knowledge and empathy to everything he did. Andy remained a true partner by supporting clinical education for Jefferson students.

Contributions can be made to the Andrew J. Norton, MD Memorial Fund by sending a check made payable to "Main Line Health," with "Dr. Norton Memorial Fund" indicated in the memo section, to the following address:

Main Line Health Development
240 North Radnor Chester Road Suite 340
Radnor, PA 19087

Tarif Bader, MD, MHA, MA, is a humanitarian and an educator who is the incoming Director General of the Kaplan Medical Center in Israel. Born in the Druze community of Hurfeish, Israel, Dr. Bader is the first Arab Druze to hold the office of Surgeon General of the State of Israel.

Dr. Bader has had an extensive and successful medical career. Recently, he was appointed as a member of the Consultant Professional Committee for the Prevention of and Fight Against the Spread of the Coronavirus Pandemic. He is a Senior lecturer in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he gives many lectures on a global scale on humanitarian issues and leadership and is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Dr. Arnold M. Noyek Award from the University of Toronto. In March of last year, Dr. Bader spoke on behalf of Israel at the United Nations General Assembly Peacekeeping Ministerial Conference.

A known humanitarian, Dr. Bader has participated in and led many medical missions worldwide. Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, he steered the Pediatric Department of the Israeli Field Hospital as a part of the Medical Corps Humanitarian Delegation. He also led humanitarian missions for wounded Syrians during the Syrian civil war in 2013. In 2015, he led the humanitarian mission after the earthquake in Nepal and in 2016, led a medical mission to bring back wounded Israeli citizens who were injured in Istanbul, Turkey.

Dr. Bader holds an MD and MHA from Ben Gurion University and an MA from Haifa University.

Vice President, 
Chief Pharmacy Officer
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Associate Dean for Professional Affairs
And Clinical Professor
Jefferson College of Pharmacy
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Dr. Swift is currently the Vice President/ Chief Pharmacy Officer at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Associate Dean for Professional Affairs and Clinical Professor at the Jefferson College of Pharmacy. In this capacity, Dr. Swift has responsibility for acute care Pharmacy operations servicing approximately 14 Hospitals, 2300 patient beds, 8 outpatient Retail Pharmacy operations, a health system based Home Infusion program, and a Specialty Pharmacy program.

Dr. Swift served as the first Chair of the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP) Section of Home Care Practitioners and was instrumental in the success of the launch of the Section.  He has also represented ASHP on the Joint Commission of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) Home Care Professional and Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) and was Chair of the group for a number of years.  Dr. Swift had previously been a Home Care Surveyor for the JCAHO and he served on the Health Care Finance Administration Task Force to establish Peer Review Organization Criteria for Catastrophic Healthcare Coverage. He has served as the Vice Chair of the Standards Committee for The National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) and as the ASHP Representative to the Joint Commission’s Home Care PTAC. He is the recipient of the 2013 DVSHP Jonathan Roberts Award.

Dr. Swift received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and his Doctor of Pharmacy from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.  He completed a clinical residency in ambulatory care at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science and The Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in 1986. He received his Masters in Business Administration in Healthcare Administration from Saint Joseph’s University in 2004.  Dr. Swift has served as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy for Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, and is a Clinical Professor at the Jefferson College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Swift served on the 2015 Task Force and Advisory Committee on Opioid Prescription Drug Proliferation in Harrisburg, and is the current Co-Chair of the Jefferson Opioid Task Force. Dr. Swift also serves on the Saint Joseph’s University Bioethics Institute Advisory Board and the Lehigh University Healthcare Systems Engineering program Advisory Board. He has published numerous articles in professional and scientific journals and presented at international, national, state, and local meetings. He and his wife Colleen live in Havertown, PA with their family Kara and Eric, Quinn and Lily, Anna and Danny.