Heather Farley appointed as first chief wellness officer

Heather Farley, M.D., MHCDS, FACEP, has been appointed as the first chief wellness officer at Christiana Care Health System.

In this role, Dr. Farley oversees the organizational strategy to advance the professional fulfillment and wellbeing of Christiana Care caregivers. She leads advocacy programs and initiatives aimed at optimizing the caregiver experience and fostering an organizational culture of wellbeing. She also continues to oversee the direction and activities of the Center for Provider Wellbeing.

Dr. Farley, an emergency medicine physician, completed her medical education at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She joined Christiana Care in 2002 for residency training in emergency medicine and a fellowship in administration which she finished in 2006.

She previously served as assistant chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine. She was instrumental in opening the Middletown Emergency Department in 2013 and served as its medical director for three years.

In 2014, Dr. Farley developed “Care for the Caregiver,” one of the nation’s earliest and largest peer support programs for health care providers. In 2016 she was named director of Provider Wellbeing and established the Center for Provider Wellbeing.

Dr. Farley earned her Master of Health Care Delivery Science from Dartmouth College in 2018. She has held several leadership positions in the American College of Emergency Physicians on state and national levels, and has co-authored multiple peer-reviewed journal articles. She frequently speaks at local, national and international venues with the goal of sharing best practices and innovations in the field of clinician wellbeing.

Dr. Farley continues to practice emergency medicine in the Christiana Hospital Emergency Department.

She reports to Chief People Officer Neil Jasani, M.D., MBA, FACEP.