John Couris
About John Couris
John D. Couris is the President and CEO of the Florida Health Sciences Center (FHSC), which comprises a portfolio of organizations, including Tampa General Hospital, one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit academic health systems, in partnership with the University of South Florida. Under Couris’ leadership, Tampa General’s footprint has grown from 17 facilities to seven hospitals across the state of Florida, with over 150 care locations and employs 15,000 team members and physicians. Additionally, Tampa General partners with other leading academic health systems, including Mass General Brigham (MGB) to improve access to academic-based cutting-edge care across Florida.
Couris is recognized as a national expert in the health care industry, organizational leadership and workplace culture transformation. While successfully building companies nationwide by driving innovation and operational excellence, he also showcases expertise in team member and stakeholder engagement and strategic collaboration.
Couris provides counsel and works closely with elected officials at all levels to help address issues impacting the health care industry in Tampa Bay, Florida, and on a national scale. In 2024, Senator Kathleen Passidomo, Immediate Past President of the Florida State Senate, appointed him to a three-year term as a member of the Florida Health Care Innovation Council.
Since taking the helm of the Florida Health Sciences Center in 2017, Couris has championed innovation at all levels of the organization. Working alongside first, GE Healthcare and now Palantir, Tampa General established an artificial intelligence and predictive analytics care coordination command center (now known as C3) designed to improve the safety, quality and affordability of health care. Today, through an ongoing multi-year partnership with Palantir, Tampa General is building a connected health system of the future to improve patient outcomes and increase operational efficiency by helping its teams wield data and analytics across the health system.
Additionally, under his leadership and in a strategic partnership with Shields Health Innovations, Tampa General developed TGH at Home, a highly successful hospital-at-home program providing hospital-level care for patients and allowing them to be cared for in their nurturing home setting. Couris also helped launch a venture capital fund, TGH Ventures, which is dedicated to fostering an organization-wide culture of innovation while supporting early-stage startups and direct investments, and in collaboration with USF Health and Tampa Bay Economic Development Council is leading the development and expansion of the Tampa Medical & Research District.
Couris serves as an expert source and contributor to multiple national publications, offering insights on topics ranging from his visionary approach to care coordination to the principles of authentic leadership. His peer-reviewed case study, “Tampa General Hospital: Harnessing Authentic Leadership to Transform an Academic Health System,” was recently published in Management in Healthcare (Volume 8 / Number 4 / Summer 2024). In January 2025, he co-authored with Peter Chang, MD, “Built from within: A successful blueprint for hospital-at-home programs” (Becker’s Hospital Review, Jan. 8, 2025).
Couris often speaks and presents at conferences across the country and internationally on topics relating to leadership, organizational transformation and growth, regulatory impact, consumerism, innovation and design, and empowering and leading high-performing teams across the health care space and various sectors.
Couris is a leader and advocate in his community and industry. He is a member of several boards and has been appointed to state and national councils. He currently serves as an advisor to both Shields Health Innovations and Fountain Healthcare Partners. Couris has received numerous awards and accolades. In 2024, he was awarded the President's Fellow Medallion from the University of South Florida, one of the highest honors the USF President can bestow.
Couris holds a doctorate in business administration, management sciences, from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, where he is a Research Fellow. His dissertation examined the impact of the practice of authentic leadership on teams and organizations.