NYC Health + Hospitals announced on Feb. 19, 2026 that Svetlana Lipyanskaya will be appointed chief executive officer of Maimonides Health, pending formal approval of a partnership between the two systems.
Lipyanskaya currently serves as chief executive officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, a role she has held since 2020 and has been part of the leadership team working to align the two Brooklyn institutions.
As the transition moves forward, Lipyanskaya is expected to spend more time at Maimonides to assess the needs of patients, staff and the surrounding community.
In tandem, Manjinder Kaur, who currently serves as chief operating officer at South Brooklyn Health, will step into the CEO role there. Kaur, a longtime leader within the public hospital system, will become the first nurse to serve as CEO of an NYC Health + Hospitals facility in recent history.
“Svetlana Lipyanskaya has been an extraordinary leader at NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health, guiding the hospital through Covid, improving quality metrics, and overseeing the opening of an 11-story, $923 million inpatient care facility,” said NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Mitchell Katz, MD.
The partnership between Maimonides and NYC Health + Hospitals is being finalized and will be backed by $2.2 billion in state funding over five years aimed at preserving safety-net care in Brooklyn.
Lipyanskaya, who grew up in Brooklyn after immigrating from Odessa, Ukraine, has overseen significant changes at South Brooklyn Health. Under her leadership, the hospital improved its Leapfrog safety grade from a D to a B and reduced hospital-acquired conditions, including pressure injuries and bloodstream and urinary tract infections.
The facility recorded more than a year without a catheter-associated urinary tract infection hospital-wide.
She also led the completion and 2023 opening of the 11-story, $923 million Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital, a storm-resilient inpatient facility built as part of Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts. Prior to heading South Brooklyn Health, Lipyanskaya held senior system-wide roles at NYC Health + Hospitals and spent 15 years within the Weill Cornell Medicine network.
“I’m honored to continue working in New York City public healthcare and to join Maimonides as its future leader,” said Lipyanskaya.
Kaur has been with NYC Health + Hospitals since 2006 and became chief operating officer of South Brooklyn Health in June 2024 after previously serving as chief nursing officer. As an executive leader, she implemented a hospital-wide tiered huddle system to streamline operations and improve care transitions, and she led reforms that reduced average length of stay for medical and surgical patients by more than two days.
During her tenure as CNO, Kaur helped drive reductions in falls, infections and other hospital-acquired conditions. She also launched the hospital’s Magnet Journey and secured a Pathway to Excellence designation. Kaur coordinated more than 300 patient transfers within a 24-hour period during the move into the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital and oversaw the relocation of the emergency department across campus.
A native of Amritsar, Punjab, India, Kaur holds nursing degrees from institutions in India and the United States, including a doctorate of nursing practice. Outside the hospital, she mentors through the American College of Healthcare Executives and serves on the advisory board for Touro College of Nursing.
