Speaker
Jeffrey Soots
Jeffrey Soots is associate director/COO of the Columbia VA Health Care System. Mr. Soots came to the VA after a 25-year career in the Air Force. He has more than 30 years of logistics and administrative experience in various healthcare settings. Mr. Soots is a native of Lenoir, N.C., and graduated from Hawaii Pacific University. He retired from the Air Force in 2009. Mr. Soots has direct oversight of the following administrative areas within the complex healthcare organization: the business office; engineering; finance; human resources; logistics; privacy/Freedom of Information Act; prosthetics; safety/emergency management; and strategic planning. During his military career, his positions included director of consolidate storage, Kaneohe Marine Corps base Hawaii, and Pacific Air Force propulsion superintendent for 3,500 personnel at nine different bases in the Pacific theater, providing cradle-to-grave logistics management and oversight of Lean initiatives as regional manager in production processes for more than 750 aerospace propulsion engines valued at $3 billion dollars. Mr. Soots began his VHA career in 2012 as a chief logistics officer overseeing $110 million worth of equipment, $50 million worth of contracts, a $30 million budget for all disposable medical supplies, 2.5 million reproductions, 1.5 million pieces of mail, 120,000 packages and distribution of 6,000 burial flags throughout the state of South Carolina. He has a varied background that includes consultative and administrative, educational and leadership roles. Mr. Soots establishes solid and viable partnerships to effectively and efficiently align and support key strategic and business initiatives. He also builds and retains high performance teams by hiring, developing, and motivating skilled professionals who are goal oriented, mission focused, results driven, and value based.