Dawn Zell Wright

VP, HR Operations CHRISTUS Health

Dawn Zell Wright joined CHRISTUS Health in November 2021 as System Vice President of Human Resources Operations. She is a collaborative, pro-active executive with more than 20 years of human resources, operations, and legal management experience. She has a proven, demonstrated ability to align human resource strategy with business goals to achieve significant improvements in key business metrics. An agile executive, Dawn leads change by facilitating the exchange of information and ideas necessary to create and leverage HR / Operational synergy across highly matrixed organizations to the benefit of physicians, service partners, patients, and the community. Dawn calls upon and utilizes evidence-based best practices from various operational platforms to design and implement customized solutions to complex problems.

Before joining the CHRISTUS Health leadership team, Dawn served UPMC as its Vice President of Human Resources for the Northcentral Region of Pennsylvania, and CommonSpirit Health as Catholic Health Initiatives Texas Division’s Director of Human Resources. Early in her healthcare career, Dawn served as the Director of Human Resources for a Critical Access Hospital where she developed a deep understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced in rural healthcare.

Dawn’s Human Resources expertise is complemented by her experience as an attorney. As a litigator and defense attorney, she received many peer-nominated awards and client accolades and was often recognized by the local judiciary for tackling tough issues adversely and disproportionately impacting minorities. As a law student, Dawn was a founding team member of The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues, with a focused resolve of giving a voice to the voiceless by shedding light on issues affecting disadvantaged communities.

Dawn’s passion for tackling tough issues related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging continues to drive her. In this time of rapid change and talent shortages, Dawn is focused on removing artificial barriers to build a sustainable pipeline of diverse and inclusive healthcare leaders.

Dawn earned her undergraduate degree in Behavioral Science from Concordia University Texas, MBA from West Texas A&M, and Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law. She holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification.

Dawn, her husband, Greg, their two children, Rebekah (age 16) and Nicholas (age 13), their two rescue dogs, Matilda and Lacey Dove, and rescue cat, River, live in the Dallas / Ft. Worth, Texas metro area.