Decades Interview with Trent Gordon '96, M'98

Trent Gordon ’96, ’98
Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Planning Advocate Health Care

By his sophomore year as a Trinity undergraduate, Kansas City native Trent Gordon ’96, ’98 thought he had his future figured out. He would pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy and teach at the university level. He ended up an executive at the largest health care system in Illinois; but it’s not as unlikely a transition as it sounds.

While being inspired by his philosophy courses—despite being an economics major—Trent worked in the Health Care Administration Department where he had a lot of interesting policy conversations with former HCAD Professor Bill McCaughrin. “I appreciated the time he took with me who didn’t even understand the basics of health care delivery” he recalls. After reviewing 100 very qualified CVs while serving on a search committee for a new philosophy professor, Trent decided he needed to follow another path. Undoubtedly imbued with the values of his service-oriented parents—a minister father and a teacher mother—he ultimately felt “health care provided a wonderful way to serve my community.”  

As it turned out, Trent was able to forge a successful career in health care and still enjoy many aspects associated with academic life to which he originally had been attracted.

After completing “an amazing residency” at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, he joined Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (now North Shore University Healthcare System) where he participated in a number of research projects and, in collaboration with various faculty, presented the research at a variety of regional and national conferences. He also published a number of peer-reviewed articles. “It was a unique opportunity and one I will forever be grateful for” he says.

In 2007, Trent joined Advocate, a vast, non-profit, faith-based health care system with 400 care sites and 12 acute-care hospitals, as Director of Business Development and Strategic Planning. In 2013, he was promoted to Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Planning. “One of the best parts of my day is mentoring service line leaders” he says. “Collaborating with these leaders to imagine and develop the future of their service lines brings me a lot of joy. It also fulfills that desire I still have to teach one day.”

His current focus, however, is leading efforts at both growing overall volumes while managing volumes of risk populations. Noting that Advocate has a higher percentage of revenue from global capitation contracts than many national organizations, he notes “as part of Advocate’s population strategy, we’ve entered into a number of joint venture ambulatory surgery centers.” Making those centers successful while simultaneously backfilling lost surgeries in Advocate’s hospital ORs consumes much of his time and he is proud of the fact that Advocate has been a leader in MSSP savings, earning more than $33 million in shared savings.” His biggest challenge remains balancing the fee for service vs. fees for value tension. “While these seem like polarizing opposite strategies, we’re determined to win at both” he emphasizes. Despite the challenges, he remains motivated “knowing my planning efforts will impact the health care my children will receive in the future.”

Trent‘s work has been recognized with the President’s Certificate of Merit Award in 2006 from the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the best Management Innovation Poster in 2008 from the ACHE Congress and the Service Award from ACHE in 2016.

Trent and his wife, also a Trinity undergraduate, have lived in the Chicago area since the late 1990s and have two young children. A league volleyball player himself, one of Trent’s favorite pastimes and “a ton of fun” is coaching his daughter’s volleyball team. He also enjoys hanging out with friends and cross-country skiing. Having no family in the area, most vacations involve visiting relatives who are spread across the country from the Bay Area in California to Philadelphia on the East Coast. Though he lacks nearby family, Trent says one of the advantages of living in the Chicago area is that the ACHE Congress is held there every year. Then, with a grin, “that means I am usually able to attend the HCAD dinner even if I don’t attend the conference.”