Forward motion is the ultimate goal for Leslie Davis as she takes over as chief executive of health care giant UPMC, whether it be in patient services, insurance or academics. Davis, 62, becomes the first woman to head the multibillion-dollar operation. She takes over officially on Sunday, though outgoing CEO Jeffrey Romoff will remain as president emeritus through Oct. 1. "Most importantly,” she said Wednesday of her priorities, "I would say shaping tomorrow as a forward-thinking academic medical center. We do this through clinical, technology, research and educational innovation.” Under Romoff, who has been with UPMC for 48 years and led the system for 29 of them, UPMC morphed from academic medical center to a $23 billion enterprise that is the largest non-governmental employer in the state. Davis said that expansion will carry on, pointing specifically to the continued work on three specialty centers, including the Vision and Rehab Tower at UPMC Mercy in the city’s Uptown neighborhood. That tower, she said, should be open within a year or so, and leaders are "moving forward now with detailed planning” for the Presbyterian Heart Transplant Center. From there, she said, plans will begin for the Shadyside-Hillman Cancer Tower, which will be part of UPMC Shadyside. The goal is to be accessible to the whole of the communities the health system serves. Part of that, Davis said, will be through neighborhood centers, like the outpatient center on Route 51 in Pleasant Hills and the reopened satellite office in Moon. There are plans for more, she said. Davis spent 14 years as the president of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital until she was named chief operating officer of the Health Services Division in 2018. She is a Long Island native, with degrees from the University of South Florida and Harvard University. She has worked in varying roles at Tufts, Mt. Sinai, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals and Penn Medicine. Before coming to UPMC, she worked for Tenet Healthcare, first as chief operating officer of the Pennsylvania region and later as chief executive of the Graduate Hospital. Her salary is not yet known. In her previous position at UPMC, Davis earned $2.87 million in 2019, according to Internal Revenue Service records. Romoff earned $9.5 million that year. Local leaders applauded the board of directors’ unanimous vote to name Davis as Romoff’s successor. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said in a statement that Romoff changed the shape and nature of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and he believes Davis will leave a legacy of her own. "Having worked with Leslie Davis these last number of years gives me the confidence that she will be able to carry on in the same manner and carry on the good work that UPMC has done for us,” he said. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, too, spoke of Davis’ track record at UPMC. "I look forward to working with her as the leader of the largest employer in Western Pennsylvania to provide world-class health care and improve the quality of life of all Pittsburghers,” he said. While UPMC has become one of the largest employers in the state, the leader of Pennsylvania’s largest union of health care workers expressed a need for "quality care for everyone and good union jobs for the people who work in UPMC hospitals.” Matthew Yarnell, president of SEIU Healthcare PA, said hospital jobs need to "lift people out of, rather than compound, the effects of structural racism.” "We are hopeful,” Yarnell said, "that Leslie Davis shares this perspective and will work with us, alongside elected leaders in the region, to make sure that our area’s largest private employer creates good jobs that support middle-class families.” Pittsburgh mayoral candidate and current state representative Ed Gainey expressed a similar sentiment. He said he looks forward to working with Davis but noted that Pittsburgh residents "expect a return on (their) investment” in UPMC. "Our health care sector should heal, not compound, economic injustices like occupational segregation, overwork and poverty, and our essential health care workers must have the ability to form a union, if they choose to, without intimidation or interference,” he said in a statement. "I know the people of Pittsburgh look forward to making progress in all these areas and to renewing this conversation with Ms. Davis and her team.” Davis laid out other broad, sweeping priorities, including supporting the employee experience — "literally the health care heroes,” she said — along with continuing to grow UPMC’s insurance plans and products and bridging racial disparities in health care. She called it "the year of the UPMC employee” and pointed to the system’s work to provide enough protective equipment during the height of the covid-19 pandemic and guarantee salaries and pay protection even as areas like elective surgery were shut down. She also noted the five-year process of getting all facilities to the point of offering minimum hourly pay of $15. Davis said the national shortage of health care workers exacerbates existing issues everywhere, not just at UPMC. Money, she said, is only part of it. "It’s really the culture that we create within our organization that makes people want to stay with us and never want to work anywhere else,” she said. Former employee Louis Berry III, who worked in housekeeping at Oakland’s UPMC Montefiore, said he’ll believe the employee-first attitude when he sees it. As part of "Make it our UPMC,” an effort to draw attention to what employees called unfair conditions, he said he does not see the health system’s "staunch union-busting activities” abating any time soon. Berry, who accepted a settlement in 2017 after an injury, said he heard about the leadership change Wednesday morning. It offered him no hope that things that would be better under new leadership. "I don’t know how much it’s going to change anything, because (Romoff) groomed his successor,” Berry said. "I don’t think it’s going to change anything.” He admitted he knows little about Davis or her leadership style, but he remained pessimistic nonetheless. "The culture is so engrained right now,” he said. "They’ve been doing this for 20 years. It’s part of the culture.” Davis said one of her goals is to improve the overall UPMC experience, which she called one part patient and another part employees. "Look, I have been very employee-facing,” she said, "and I plan to continue being that way through a variety of methods, whether it’s in writing or town halls or (making rounds).” Good leadership, she said, starts at the top but trickles down. "It’s not just me,” she said. "It kind of starts with me, but it’s really our leaders and making sure that they have the tools they need to do their jobs.”