Retiring President and CEO Guy A. Medaglia calls Carter ‘a true believer in what we do’
CHICAGO, Jan. 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — North Lawndale-based Saint Anthony Hospital and its Board of Directors announced the hiring of Dorval R. Carter, Jr. as the hospital’s new President and CEO. In addition to Carter’s management and government experience, his personal connection to the hospital and his role serving on its board for more than a decade made him the ideal candidate to lead and nurture the institution and the community it serves.
“My family has a long and personal history with Saint Anthony. My father chaired the obstetrics and gynecology department for many years and today, the maternity ward — the Dr. Dorval and Vivian Carter Family Birthing Center — is named in my parents’ honor, recognizing their tireless commitment to the hospital,” Carter said. “I have been proud to serve on the board of directors for more than a decade, most recently as chairman, and I am excited to serve as the new President and CEO and lead Saint Anthony and its new Focal Point campus into the future.”
Saint Anthony Hospital is an independent, nonprofit, faith-based, acute care, community hospital dedicated to improving the health and wellness of families in Lawndale and its surrounding communities. Current President and CEO Guy A. Medaglia announced in January 2024 to the Board that he planned to retire in 2025.
“I’m incredibly proud of the achievements and advancements in care I was able to help lead during my time at Saint Anthony,” he said. “I wanted to find a President and CEO candidate who shared my passion for this community and the excellent care we provide to everyone who comes through our doors. Dorval is that person. He is a seasoned executive committed to helping underserved populations. He also can navigate the complexities of state and federal government to ensure the hospital receives the support and funding to which it is entitled.”
Medaglia joined Saint Anthony Hospital as interim president in 2007 and made several decisions that took the hospital from financial peril to being stable and well-operated with innovative advances in care. One of his first acts was to separate from Ascension Health Systems and transition into an independent, Catholic, community hospital.
In the years that followed, Saint Anthony Hospital, under Medaglia’s leadership, logged many successes, including:
- Improvements in patient care outcomes: Saint Anthony was granted children’s hospital status from the State of Illinois and kept its pediatrics unit operational when other community hospitals were closing theirs.
- Award winning: Saint Anthony won Illinois Performance Excellence (ILPEx) Awards for “Commitment to Excellence” and was named the “Best Value” hospital in Chicago.
- Advancements in technology: Saint Anthony brought first of its kind video technology to the maternity center to connect families across and outside the U.S. The hospital was also able to deliver on Medaglia’s vision to convert transportation services to a new electric vehicle fleet with its own charging station.
- Expansion of services: In 2012, the newly remodeled Kedzie Avenue Clinic reopened, which was the first of several to follow a new model for outpatient clinics that could offer more specialty services. Saint Anthony then opened its state-of-the-art Little Village Clinic that included rehab and occupational medicine, along with a new dialysis center. In the last five years, Saint Anthony was able to open two additional rehab clinics to expand services into the Illinois Medical District and Gage Park. The hospital also was certified as a Primary Stroke Center to provide even more lifesaving care to the community.
Carter has served the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in a variety of critical roles, most recently as president. At CTA, he oversaw more than $11 billion in projects that were completed, begun or announced during his tenure leading the agency, including the $5.6 billion Red Line Extension Project—for which he recently signed a $1.9 billion Full Funding Grant Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration—the $2.1 billion first phase of the Red and Purple Modernization Program and billions of dollars in other projects and initiatives.
Prior to that, he served the U.S. Department of Transportation as chief of staff to Secretary Anthony Foxx where he helped manage a department with more than 55,000 employees and a $70 billion budget. He also previously served as acting deputy administrator and chief counsel for the Federal Transit Administration.
Carter believes his new role will allow him to continue a family legacy of service to residents of Chicago’s West Side.
“My formative years were spent working with my family at my grandparents’ skilled nursing care facility on Chicago’s West Side where I learned the importance of caring for the people we served — largely individuals with low incomes from minority communities,” Carter said. “Those values have guided my career in public transportation and I will adhere to those ideals and principles as CEO. I am excited to serve our patients and the North Lawndale and surrounding communities in the years to come.”
At Saint Anthony, Carter will oversee the development of what is expected to be a new, state-of-the-art hospital at 31st Street and Kedzie Avenue. While state and city officials have set aside some appropriations for the new facility, it needs a stronger commitment from elected officials to move to the next phase. Carter is just the person to be at the forefront of that campaign. Medaglia will continue to serve as President and CEO of Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, the entity overseeing the project.
“Saint Anthony is like the little engine that could,” Carter said. “We have people who care, who are committed, passionate, and are extremely dedicated. One of the reasons I’m excited about Focal Point is that it’s going to give us the opportunity to create the kind of physical infrastructure that matches our human capital. It represents an investment in a community that normally doesn’t get to see these resources provided to them.”
For more information about Saint Anthony Hospital, please visit www.sahchicago.org.
About Saint Anthony Hospital
Founded in 1898, Saint Anthony Hospital is a community-centered organization, serving more than 400,000 residents on Chicago’s West and Southwest Sides. Saint Anthony Hospital, its affiliated clinics and community wellness centers, provide quality health and wellness services, as well as a wide variety of free bilingual community health education and outreach programs. For more information, go to SAHChicago.org.
Chicago Southwest Development Corporation
The mission of the Chicago Southwest Development Corporation is to create self-sustaining communities throughout Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods, to enrich the lives of families through nontraditional education, recreation, and health and wellness programs, and to enhance social service programs that specifically meet the needs of each individual community. For more information on Chicago Southwest Development Corporation, please visit www.chicagosdc.com.
SOURCE Saint Anthony Hospital
