‘Dream to work here.’ This former nurse is set to be the new CEO of Jackson Health
David Zambrana, a health executive who got his start working as a registered nurse at Jackson Memorial Hospital, will soon have one of the most important and influential jobs in Miami-Dade County.
Starting in June, he’ll be the new CEO of Jackson Health, Miami-Dade’s public hospital system and one of the largest in the nation.
Zambrana, who is currently Jackson’s president and chief operating officer, was unanimously appointed Thursday by the governing body of the hospital system. The promotion comes after longtime CEO Carlos Migoya announced plans to step down after nearly 15 years of leading the taxpayer-funded hospital system.
For the 55-year-old Zambrana, who began his nursing career at Jackson 35 years ago, it feels like a full-circle moment.
“It was a dream to work here,” Zambrana told the Herald after his appointment. “When I graduated from nursing school, this was the place where nurses came to create a career, and I walked in the doors of this place every single day, super proud of working here, and I still feel that way.”
As Miami-Dade’s safety net hospital system, Jackson provides care to everyone, even if they can’t pay and don’t have health insurance. The health system has seven hospitals, two nursing homes, a renowned transplant center, and several urgent cares, doctors’ offices and clinics across Miami-Dade. It serves as a teaching hospital through a partnership with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and was ground zero of Miami-Dade’s COVID-19 pandemic.
“The magnitude of this moment is not lost on me. ... I will honor, uphold and safeguard Jackson’s sacred mission, knowing that this health system is a place of hope and healing for everyone — regardless of their life circumstances,” Zambrana said at Thursday’s meeting.
Who is David Zambrana?
Born in New Jersey to Cuban parents, Zambrana moved to Hialeah at age 10. He got his first job at 15 as a file clerk in the medical records department of Hialeah Hospital, where his mom worked in the cafeteria. Inspired by his older sister, who became a nurse, Zambrana set off to get his nursing degree and license from Southern University of Seventh-Day Adventist in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In 1991, after nursing school, Zambrana went to work at Jackson’s main Miami campus, where he worked in the cardiac and pediatric intensive care units and as a bedside nurse at Ryder Trauma Center. That’s where he met Martha Baker, the founding nurse manager of the trauma ICU at Jackson and the longtime executive director of SEIU Healthcare Florida Local 1991, the union that represents registered nurses, attending physicians and healthcare professionals at Miami-Dade’s public hospital system.
“He’s got a good heart,” Baker, a registered nurse with decades of experience at Jackson, said Thursday after Zambrana was named CEO. She remembers Zambrana being dedicated to his patients as a nurse and always willing to help others.
Zambrana eventually left Jackson in 1999 to pursue nursing leadership roles at other hospitals, including at Delray Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic Weston and Hollywood Medical Center and eventually became chief nursing officer at Des Peres Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.
He came back to Jackson in 2016, when he left his job as chief executive at the neighboring University of Miami Hospital for the same job at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Last year, he was promoted to Jackson’s chief operating officer, is a faculty member at the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies, and serves on the board of United Way Miami, which he will chair later this year. He’ll be Jackson Health’s official CEO on June 1.
New Jackson Health CEO to face upcoming challenges
Zambrana, who was given a standing ovation following his appointment, will be taking over at a time when health systems across the country are facing financial pressures stemming from higher costs and lower reimbursement rates while also grappling with ongoing physician and nurse shortages, a rise in healthcare-related cybersecurity threats, and higher demand for care in an aging country. Hospitals are also preparing to potentially care for more patients without health insurance now that COVID-era subsidies under the Affordable Care Act expired in December, leading to more expensive premiums for many.
The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has traditionally been more popular in Miami-Dade and Florida than anywhere else in the country. And recent preliminary numbers show that Florida now leads the nation in the drop of Obamacare enrollments following the subsidy expirations, according to Miami Herald news partner WLRN.
The ever-changing federal health landscape is not the only thing Jackson leaders are watching. All eyes are on Tallahassee, where lawmakers are expected to discuss potential property tax cuts during this year’s legislative session. Migoya has previously said the proposals being floated could cause Jackson to lose millions.
When asked about the upcoming health insurance and property tax challenges, Zambrana expressed confidence in the relationship the health system has built with lawmakers and his commitment to reminding them about how their decisions can impact Miami-Dade and Jackson Health.
“Regardless of the outcome of that, we will be OK, because, you know, this is really about our team coming together and being able to make decisions with our caregivers and our patients in mind and never compromising the care we provide to them,” Zambrana said.
Some of his plans as CEO: Reducing the time-consuming documentation workload of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff, and exploring new opportunities to bring care closer to where patients live, part of a growing healthcare trend that is being seen in South Florida. Zambrana said he also wants to find ways to continue strengthening, growing and retaining the hospital system’s workforce. Currently, Jackson has more than 15,200 employees, with a “voluntary turnover below 9%,” he said.
Migoya, Baker and members of the governing body that oversee Jackson Health all agree that Zambrana’s experience, both on the administrative and patient care side of Jackson, have prepared him for his new CEO role.
He’s the “whole package,” Baker said.
The CEO job
Zambrana also has big shoes to fill. Migoya, a retired banker who became Jackson’s CEO in 2011, is credited with saving the hospital system from financial ruin and also spearheaded its explosive growth during his tenure.
Migoya will remain as CEO through the end of May and isn’t quite ready to fully retire just yet. The 75-year-old said he plans to remain involved with Jackson through an advisory role and as an ambassador for the health system.
On Thursday, Migoya described Zambrana as the “most prepared leader in our 107-year-history” during his hiring recommendation to the Public Health Trust, the health system’s governing body. The seven-member board oversees the health system and is responsible for hiring the CEO, a process that typically involves conducting a national search for one of the highest-paid jobs in the county.
The Trust listened to Migoya’s recommendation and opted to skip the search and hire Zambrana, praising him for his work and dedication through the years.
Being the CEO of Miami-Dade’s safety net hospital comes with a lot of responsibilities. Besides financial and regulatory pressures in the healthcare industry, Migoya has faced other problems throughout his tenure, including leading the hospital system through the COVID pandemic and working with Miami-Dade to improve conditions in county jail. Migoya with his team in recent years has had to navigate the abrupt and temporary closure of the hospital’s adult heart transplant program, community outrage over the decision to shutter Jackson South’s maternity ward, patient record data breaches and the occasional arrest of bad-acting employees.
Migoya, along with CEO Flavia Llizo of the hospital’s fundraising arm, the Jackson Health Foundation, for example, are currently navigating the fallout of a long-running scheme by a former executive that bilked millions of donor funds.
The high-stakes CEO job also comes with a hefty paycheck that is accounted for in the hospital system’s operating budget, which comes from patient revenue, taxes and philanthropy.
Zambrana is still in the process of negotiating his CEO contract with the Trust, but his predecessor Migoya is set to reel in a base salary of $1.44 million after an upcoming February pay raise. Migoya’s base pay is similar to other South Florida hospital CEOs, but his total compensation — salary combined with benefits — is generally less than other hospital leaders.
‘Jackson is a very complex system’
Both Migoya and board chair Amadeo Lopez-Castro III told the Miami Herald after the vote that they didn’t believe a CEO search was necessary because of Zambrana’s work within the health system and his knowledge and involvement in the South Florida community.
“Jackson is a very complex system,” Migoya told the Herald, noting that he believes “the biggest legacy” of any CEO is to identify the “right person” to succeed them. A national search, in Migoya’s opinion, means the CEO failed to find a successor.
Migoya told the Herald that Zambrana’s leadership style as chief executive at Jackson Memorial is what made him stand out as a potential successor. Migoya said he’s been preparing Zambrana, his right-hand man, for about six years now to ensure he was ready for the job.
“This position navigates an incredibly complex current of operations, politics and community relationships only seen in Miami,” Migoya said during a news conference Thursday after the vote. “David understands all of this, and we’re very, very lucky to have someone of his caliber ready to step up.”
“Beyond his credentials and experience, it is who David is as a person, as a clinician and as a leader that makes him so perfect for this job,” he added.
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 2:27 PM.
