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Dr. Ngozi Ezike: President & CEO of Sinai Chicago

  • Union League Club Chicago 1309 S Federal St Chicago, IL, 60605 United States (map)

Please Join Us

Tickets go on sale Friday, April 5, 2024

Click below to register and purchase your ticket for the Dr. Ngozi Ezike speaker luncheon at the Union League Club on Friday, May 3rd, 2024 at 12 noon.

Online reservations close Tuesday, April 30, 2024 @ 5pm. For any questions or reservations after April 30th, please call Judy Murphy at 224-392-9361


How Can I Purchase a Discounted Luncheon Ticket? Become a Member of the First Friday Club of Chicago!

It’s easy! A donation starting at $75, is good for one membership, September 2024 through May 2025, and allows the purchase of at least one discounted event ticket ($50) per event.


Give it to me straight, Doc!

She got us through the pandemic. Now, with her trademark passion and professionalism, Dr. Ngozi Ezike takes aim at the biggest health care challenges facing Chicago.

A confident, reassuring presence during Gov. Pritzker’s daily covid briefings, Dr. Ngozi Ezike in 2022 left the Illinois Department of Public Health to lead Sinai Chicago. And, while steering this major, 105-year-old Chicago healthcare institution, she’s keeping her eye on the broader picture.

“Understanding health care is more than what happens with doctors and nurses,” she says. “We have to see the related other pieces: having insurance, having a safe space to exercise, having a grocery store nearby so you can buy healthy food. We’re in the minority among developed nations in how we don’t see health care as a right. Instead there are haves and have nots.”

Located on Chicago’s West Side, Sinai Hospital offers a case in point: 70% of its patients are on Medicaid. West Siders’ life expectancy is 16 years shorter than that of folks who live just a few miles away in the Loop. Ezike insists that this status quo is simply not acceptable. “More people need to be thinking about this,” she says. “Our words and our actions really have to match.”

As a healthcare leader who has dedicated her career to serving disadvantaged communities and fighting health care disparities, Ezike will point to the bigger picture of how we can work together to ensure decent healthcare for all Chicagoans.

More on Dr. Ezike

A graduate of Harvard, Dr. Ezike worked for 15 years for Cook County Health, addressing the needs of the residents of Cook County. She also served as medical director of the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and of Austin Health Center on the West Side.


Don’t Forget About Parking

Discounted parking as low as $10 for All First Friday Club Attendees is available in the South Loop Self Park, 318 S. Federal St, Chicago through the iParkit Phone App. For more information on this special offer, click on the following button to get started