Deirdre Lawe brings more than 20 years of experience in nursing and VITAS management and operations to her position as Executive Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, one of the nation’s oldest and largest providers of end-of-life care.

Deirdre plans and executes VITAS’ aggressive strategy to grow its hospice operations through a combination of start-up hospice programs and acquisition of existing hospice programs. She also leads VITAS’ public affairs and public policy programs at the federal, state and local levels, working to ensure that Medicare and Medicaid continue to support high-quality, cost-effective end-of-life care.

Since assuming the role of vice president of development and public affairs in 2004, Deirdre has helped VITAS achieve unprecedented growth. During this time the company doubled its revenues and increased its patient census by 50 percent. Under her leadership, VITAS has doubled the number of hospice programs it operates and acquired to respected local hospice providers.

A coronary care nurse by training with service at two leading academic medical centers, Deirdre joined VITAS in 1987 as an admissions counselor in Broward County, Florida. In this role she was charged with educating patients and families about hospice care and ensuring a smooth admissions process for VITAS patients. She quickly was promoted to director of admissions for VITAS in Broward County and in 1989 was named general manager for the Broward program, where she was responsible for both admissions and clinical care, as well as staff recruitment and retention, compliance and administration.

A year later Deirdre was appointed VITAS regional vice president for Florida, and served in that capacity for five years until she was named regional vice president for California. While there she was responsible for managing the acquisition and integration of Anaheim-based Community Hospice Care, Inc., the largest hospice acquisition in the history of VITAS.

Deirdre returned to South Florida at the end of 1996 to assume the role of senior vice president for marketing & admissions. Three years later she was named senior vice president and chief of hospice operations. She held this position until she was appointed executive vice president for Strategic Development in the summer of 2002. She was promoted to her current position in the fall of 2004.

Deirdre received an AAS degree in nursing from Misericordia Hospital School of Nursing in the Bronx, New York, after which she participated in the health services/nursing curriculum at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She is a registered professional nurse in Florida.