In Memoriam
Leon Haley Jr., MD, CEO of the UF Health Jacksonville and former chief liaison for Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System, died in a personal watercraft accident in West Palm Beach on Saturday, July 24, 2021, at 56.
A Pittsburgh native, Haley held degrees from Brown University and the universities of Pittsburgh and Michigan. He was board certified in emergency medicine and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the American College of Physician Executives, and the IOM Committee on Health and Insurance Status.
Haley had been serving as dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville and chief executive officer of the UF Health Jacksonville system. Prior to joining UF in January 2017, Haley served as Emory’s medical director of Grady Emergency Care Center for more than a decade and as executive associate dean of clinical affairs at Grady for four years.
Haley received a Jacksonville Business Journal’s “The Ultimate CEO” award, an Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Healthcare Heroes award, and the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants Physician of the Year award. He was a proud member of Omega Psi Phi and Sigma PI Phi (The Boulé) Fraternity.
He is survived by his parents, Elizabeth Ann Haley and Leon Haley Sr., his children, Grant, Wesley, and Nichelle, their mother, Carla Neal Haley; sister, Lisa Haley-Huff and nephew, Jacob Tyler Huff of New York.
