James Gary Sheets’s Biography
James Gary Sheets has built nearly three decades of experience in health care leadership, managing responsibilities across hospitals, markets, regions, and service lines. His approach emphasizes listening, bringing clarity to complex matters, and creating teams that can work effectively toward common objectives. Over the course of his career, he has helped health care organizations navigate difficult periods while remaining focused on patients, caregivers, operational stability, and improved performance.
Most recently, James served as Peaks Region President for Intermountain Health, a nonprofit health system. His responsibilities covered care delivery across eight hospitals and roughly 150 clinics throughout Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. The region included about 12,000 team members and 1,000 physicians and advanced practice providers. As a member of the executive leadership team, he helped determine strategy and carried accountability for growth, quality, safety, financial performance, and the daily experiences of patients and caregivers.
Leadership That Shows Up in the Numbers
Upon taking the Peaks Region role, James Sheets established a regional direction based on three fundamentals: safety and quality, engaged caregivers, and stewardship. He followed these priorities with a multi-year operational improvement plan that delivered meaningful financial gains in its first year. Patient satisfaction remained steady despite considerable organizational change. During his leadership, the region also raised its quality and safety scores and brought SelectHealth, the system's own health plan, into Colorado through a partnership with a leading local system.
The connection between strategic planning and measurable outcomes has remained a consistent element of his work throughout his career.
A Long Run at Intermountain, in Two Acts
James's experience with Intermountain has unfolded across two chapters that together represent eighteen years of combined service, giving him significant knowledge of the organization.
The first chapter covered 2007 to 2023, when James advanced through positions with increasing responsibility. As Chief Operating Officer for Acute Care Services in the Canyons Region, he directed acute operations across 21 hospitals in Utah and Idaho, as well as surgery centers, telehealth, air ambulance, and outreach services. The region reached the top tier of national quality rankings, exceeded financial targets, and improved caregiver engagement and safety culture. He established a dedicated ambulatory surgery center division, opened a new community hospital in one of Utah's fastest-growing areas, and started a long-range plan to modernize flagship facilities. He also identified, negotiated, and integrated the acquisition of an air medical company into the Life Flight service, strengthening the air ambulance operation.
Earlier, as Vice President of Telehealth and Outreach Services, he managed a portfolio extending across eight states. He rebuilt the virtual care offering from its branding onward, consolidated it within a single modern hub, and increased volume year after year. When the pandemic began, his team expanded video visits by a factor of a thousand almost overnight. It also introduced virtual programs across behavioral health, remote monitoring, oncology, and other areas, keeping care available when in-person visits were not possible.
Before taking regional responsibilities, he served as CEO and Administrator of LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City after initially joining as an Operations Officer. Patient satisfaction rose from the middle of the pack into the top tenth percentile nationally, financial performance improved by tens of millions of dollars, and quality metrics strengthened across the board. The hospital earned repeated Top 100 Hospital honors and high marks from U.S. News and World Report. He also delivered a major facility renovation on time and under budget and secured philanthropic funding for a new blood cancer clinic.
Between his two periods at Intermountain, James served as Group President for the Mountain Region of CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic nonprofit health system in the country. He was responsible for ten hospitals across the Denver and Utah markets. He also led the organization's entry into Utah, integrating five acute care facilities in a matter of months while aligning leadership teams with the culture of a faith-based system.
Jim Sheets's leadership foundation was established earlier through nearly a decade of increasing responsibility at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix and Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California. In those roles, he managed large operations and guided major expansion and financial improvement projects.
Educator, Board Member, Neighbor
James holds both a Master of Healthcare Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota, along with a bachelor's degree in business management, earned cum laude, from the University of Utah. Early in his career, he completed an administrative fellowship in California. For nearly a decade, he also served as an adjunct professor in the University of Utah's Master of Healthcare Administration program at the David Eccles School of Business, teaching future health care executives.
James's board service has included the Colorado Hospital Association, Utah Hospital Association, Colorado Concern, National Jewish Health, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, and University of Utah MHA Advisory Council.
Rooted in Faith and Family
A native of Holladay, Utah, James has remained engaged with his community, his children's schools, and his church. Throughout his career, he has raised millions of dollars for health care causes, especially during his years at LDS Hospital. His volunteer activities have included homeless shelters, the Family Promise family homeless program, school advisory councils, and many years of service as a Little League coach.
James Gary Sheets and his wife, a kindergarten teacher, raised five children, and watching them play from the stands has been an important part of his personal life. Away from work, he enjoys golfing, skiing, reading, and backpacking in the Utah wilderness. He is a devoted University of Utah fan and has worked the chain gang at Ute home football games for two decades, spending that time on the sideline.