Dr. Adrienne Green has been named CEO of the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living, making her the first woman, and the first medical doctor, to lead the renowned senior center in its more than 150-year history.
“It’s just a privilege to be leading this organization,” said Green, who officially took over on July 18. “Physician or not, woman or not.”
Green worked for 25 years at UCSF, where she was a clinical professor of medicine, chief medical officer for the UCSF Medical Center, and vice president for patient safety and accreditation. Her medical specialty is internal medicine.
Green has served on the board at the Campus for Jewish Living for four years, providing her with a close-up look at the organization and its work. When she became aware of the CEO vacancy, she jumped at the opportunity to join an institution she has admired for so long.
“I’ve always held this place in very high regard,” she said.
Green is succeeding Mary Connick, the senior home’s CFO who served as interim CEO after the retirement of longtime CEO Daniel Ruth last year.
Known for years as the Jewish Home of San Francisco, the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living (SFCJL) provides senior health care and services on a nonsectarian basis, honoring Jewish traditions while providing older adults of all faiths with short-term and long-term skilled nursing. It also offers assisted-living and memory care services at its Frank Residences, and operates a geriatric psychiatry unit with one dozen beds.
It traces its history back to 1871, when it was the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Home Society, which cared for parentless children and had a “home for aged and infirm Israelites.”
Today, SFCJL serves approximately 350 residents and more than 2,500 people each year, operating on a nine-acre campus in the Excelsior District, at the corner of Silver Avenue and Mission Street.
“Whoever purchased this land,” Green said, “had a lot of vision.”
David Lowi, the immediate past chair of the SFCJL board of trustees, said he was excited about Green accepting the job.
“I am confident that Dr. Green will exemplify one of my favorite Jewish sayings, ‘From strength to strength may we be strengthened,’” he said in a release.
Green takes over as SFCJL continues to face challenges, including some caused by the pandemic. As with similar facilities elsewhere, SFCJL experienced Covid-19 outbreaks among staff and residents, and is still taking Covid-related precautions, such as masking. When it’s safe to do so, Green said she is looking forward to ending the masking policy.
“You’re dealing with a frail, elderly population with some cognitive dysfunction, and the ability to see a whole face is really important,” Green said.
Additionally, the facility continues to grapple with staffing shortages, as nurses have been quitting due to burnout. Like other health care organizations in the same boat, SFCJL is working to increase its permanent staff, Green said.
As for the institution’s financial health, Green said SFCJL is striving to maintain reimbursements from Medicare, Medi-Cal and private insurance companies. Philanthropic dollars account for a significant portion of SFCJL’s budget, she added.
The challenges, Green said, will sort themselves out as long as SFCJL remains focused on its mission of providing top-level care to older adults.
“If you have the quality and safety pieces in place, the finances and everything else will follow,” Green said.
Green grew up in Portland, Oregon and went to medical school at the Hahnemann University School of Medicine, now part of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. She did her residency in internal medicine at Stanford University.
She likes hiking and is learning to play pickleball, but for the past several weeks, her focus has been on acquainting herself with her SFCJL team. She’s been making rounds and interacting with staff — which has led to a surprise finding about the institution’s Jewish identity.
“When you ask people how long they’ve been here, there are folks who will say, ‘I’ve been here 10 years, 25 years,’” she said. “And then you say, ‘Well, what keeps you here?’ And frequently, these are folks who are not Jewish, and they say that what keeps them here are Jewish values that are embodied in what they get to do every day. So it’s a pretty special place.”