Suzet McKinney

Healthcare executive Suzet McKinney was born on January 16, 1973 in Chicago, Illinois to Marilyn and Tom Montgomery. She grew up on Chicago’s south side and graduated from Whitney Young High School in 1991. She earned her B.A. degree in biology from Brandeis University in Chicago, Illinois in 1996. In 2001, she graduated with her M.P.H. degree in healthcare administration and managed care from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. Then, she received her DrPH degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009.

McKinney began her career in 1996 as a social worker and case manager at the Firman Community Services agency. In 1999, she joined Thresholds as the director of its parenting teens program. In 2002, after the City of Chicago’s Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness was established, McKinney became the Chicago Department of Public Health’s preparedness and emergency response regional coordinator. The following year, she was promoted to manager of the health alert network. In 2005, she became the Chicago Department of Public Health’s preparedness and emergency response director of planning, research, and development. During the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, McKinney led the operational response in her role at The Chicago Department of Public Health. She also led the Chicago Department of Health’s response to the Haiti earthquake in 2010. In 2011, McKinney left Chicago and moved to Washinton D.C. to work for the Tauri Group where she provided strategic and analytical consulting services to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s BioWatch program. After she left the Tauri Group in 2012, McKinney led the City of Chicago’s response to the Ebola crisis from 2013 to 2016.

In 2018 and 2019, McKinney was named one of Chicago’s Notable Women in Healthcare. That same year, she co-authored Public Health Emergency Preparedness: Practical Solutions for the Real World with Mary Elise Papke. During the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, McKinney was appointed by Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker as operations lead for the State of Illinois alternative care facilities. In 2021, she became the director of life science at Sterling Bay. In 2023, McKinney presented a Ted Talk titled, “Want Better Health and Better Lives? Think Life Science.”

Suzet McKinney and her husband, Martin McKinney, have a daughter, Joia McKinney. McKinney resides in Chicago, Illinois.

Suzet McKinney was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 24, 2024.