Hospital Leadership at St. Joseph's Hospital-North

Sara Dodds, President

Sara Dodds is the president of St. Joseph’s Hospital-North in Lutz. Part of BayCare Health System, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North opened in February 2010 to bring high-quality health care services to North Tampa in an environment designed to help patients heal. The all-digital, state-of-the-art facility is specially designed to make patients and visitors as comfortable as possible during their hospital experience.

Sara was appointed to the position effective April 16, 2023. She is the third president in St. Joseph’s Hospital-North history following Tom Garthwaite (2020-2023) and Paula McGuiness (2010-2020).

Sara’s been in a leadership position at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North since 2016 when she led clinical decision support. In 2017, she became operations director overseeing areas that include quality of patient care and finance. She has a reputation for working closely with all departments, a particularly important trait as she led the hospital’s $76-million expansion completed in 2020, which doubled the hospital’s beds to more than 200 and increased services.

She also had a leading role in the addition of a 24-bed inpatient psychiatric unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North. The St. Joseph’s Hospital-North Unit for Psychiatry and Medical Services (UPM), opened in April 2023, simultaneously treats patients for both medical and psychiatric diagnoses.

Sara has been with BayCare since 2004 when she started at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa as a patient care technician while attending nursing school. She became an RN at St. Joseph’s Hospital in 2005 and an original team member at St. Joseph’s Hospital-North when it opened in 2010. At St. Joseph’s Hospital-North, she’s been a charge nurse (a nurse supervising a unit) and nurse manager before her director positions. She was also the hospital’s interim president from January 2, 2023 to April 15, 2023. She has a master of science degree in nursing leadership.

Sara is a 2021 graduate of the Leadership Tampa program of the Tampa Bay Chamber and a board member of The Florida Orchestra and FiCare Credit Union. A Lutz resident, she is also a member of the Philanthropic Women of St. Joseph’s Hospitals.

In 2021, she was named to Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list honoring 40 young professionals in the local area under the age of 40.