Dr. Emily Volk is new CMO at Baptist Health Floyd

Dr. Volk is very involved with the College of American Pathologists and is currently the organization's president-elect.

It didn’t take Emily Volk, MD, long to realize that Baptist Health Floyd is where she wanted to continue her medical career.

She was hooked after the first interview with hospital president Mike Schroyer.

“When I had my first interview with Mike, it was clear he is a really charismatic leader. He is a clinician first and foremost and that was really exciting to me,” she said. “He has a clear vision where he wants to take Baptist Health Floyd and that drew me in. When I had the opportunity to meet the rest of the team I could tell they were really aligned with what they wanted to do for the community.”

On March 29, Dr. Volk become part of that team. She has accepted the position as Chief Medical Officer for Baptist Health Floyd.

Dr. Volk is coming to Southern Indiana after serving as senior vice president, clinical services at University Health System in San Antonio, a position she held for four years.

Dr. Volk is originally from Kansas City and said she was excited to get back to the middle of the country. She received her medical degree from the University of  Missouri, Kansas City. She completed her residency in anatomic and clinical pathology and a surgical pathology fellowship at Cleveland Clinic Foundation. She also completed a Cytopathology Fellowship at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. She later received her Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Volk is very involved with the College of American Pathologists and is currently the organization’s president-elect.

She said one of her first priorities will be meeting with the medical staff.

“My goal in the first several months of my job is to meet with physicians, leaders of the medical staff, nurses and other members of the clinical team to learn better what our opportunities are and what our strengths are,” she said. “What are the priorities of the medical staff? What things are going well and what things do they think we can do even better? My ultimate goal is to be a bridge for the medical staff and administration and help identify and remove barriers, if there are any.”

Dr. Volk said Baptist Health is “a terrific organization with a strong history of being physician led.”

“The priorities of the company seemed very clear … the patient is first. Serving the patient and serving the community is core of the mission,” she said. “The opportunity to work for an organization so devoted to Kentucky and now Southern Indiana was just very, very appealing.”

She has already met with some of the physicians at the hospital and was “very impressed.”

“The doctors are committed to doing the right thing,” Dr. Volk said. “The opportunity to work with such a talented medical staff was also part of the appeal.”

She said she was attracted to pathology because it allowed her to “practice medicine across so many fields.” She said behind every lab test there is a pathologist to make sure everything is accurate.

Her husband, Daniel Mais, MD, also is a pathologist and will be the director of women’s health at the University of Louisville. The couple has four children.

She said she can’t wait to get started in her new role at the hospital.

“It’s a privilege, something I take very serious,” she said. “I am very excited to get to work with the team at Baptist Health Floyd.”