Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has promoted Bhavna Mehta to Vice President and Chief Data Officer, making her the organization’s inaugural CDO. The creation of the Chief Data Officer role reflects Cincinnati Children’s commitment to accelerating innovation through data, analytics, and AI while ensuring these capabilities are governed responsibly and aligned with the organization’s mission.

In the role, Mehta will be responsible for leveraging data, analytics, and AI to advance the mission, foster a data-driven culture, and ensure the effective governance and utilization of enterprise data assets and the organization’s data ecosystem. She will focus on accelerating the organization’s transformation through trusted data, responsible AI, modern data products, and enterprise-wide collaboration.

Mehta brings more than 25 years of healthcare technology, informatics, data, and analytics leadership experience. She leads the centralized D&A organization, a federated community of analytics professionals, and enterprise initiatives that leverage data and analytics to improve clinical outcomes, accelerate research discovery, enhance operational performance, and support organizational transformation.

Prior to her current role, Mehta served as Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Data and Analytics. Under her leadership, the organization advanced its enterprise data ecosystem, expanded access to analytics capabilities across the health system and the Cincinnati Children’s HealthVine, established enterprise Data and AI Governance programs, and strengthened the foundation for responsible AI adoption and innovation across the institution.

Throughout her career, Mehta has advocated for responsible AI, strong data governance, collaboration, and the development of data and AI literacy as strategic enablers of innovation. Her leadership philosophy centers on treating data not simply as a technical asset, but as a mission asset. She views data, analytics, and AI as mission-critical capabilities that enable better care, faster discovery, and greater organizational impact.

Beyond her role at Cincinnati Children’s, Mehta serves on the Epic CDAIO Advisory Council and the CDO Magazine Global Board. She has also been named to the CDO Magazine Global Data Power Women 2025 list and recognized as one of Ohio’s Top 25 Data & AI Leaders in 2026.