Despite a plan to retire at year’s end, Cheryl Klass has taken on another executive leadership role with Kaleida Health.
Klass is assuming the temporary role of interim president at Upper Allegheny Health System, a role left vacant when Dr. Jill Owens announced last April she would return to private medical practice after two years in the post.
It’s the next in a long line of executive posts for Klass, who has spent 20 years with Kaleida, including the past two years as chief operating officer and, before that, as chief nursing officer. She first joined the system in 2004 as president of the former Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo.
Klass retired in mid-2021 after 45 years in health care, then came out of retirement in February 2022 to serve as interim president at Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute.
A search continues for a permanent president to lead Upper Allegheny, which includes hospitals in both Olean and across the state border in Bradford, Pennsylvania, with combined revenue of $175 million. The search is expected to conclude by year’s end.