Peggy Pettit
Executive Vice President
Peggy Pettit is executive vice president of VITAS Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of end-of-life care. She brings to her role more than 35 years of experience in hospice management and nursing.
Peggy joined VITAS in 1983 as a registered nurse in Florida’s Broward County program, where she rose quickly through the ranks, serving as a nurse, team manager, patient care administrator, and general manager.
In the mid-1990s, Peggy served as vice president for VITAS throughout California. She returned to Miami in 1998 as the company’s first vice president for patient and family services.
She was promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer in 2002—a position she held until 2011, when she assumed her current role.
Peggy has distinguished herself as an advocate for patients and families and as a mentor to VITAS managers, nurses, and other clinicians on the hospice interdisciplinary teams. Based on her experiences providing and managing care for HIV/AIDS patients in South Florida in the 1980s, Peggy helped shape VITAS’ initial response to the AIDS pandemic affecting adults and children in sub-Saharan Africa by serving on the founding board of the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa (FHSSA).
In her current role, Peggy is involved in establishing and cementing key national relationships with such organizations as the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA), for which she is a corporate roundtable director and a lifetime chapter member.
Peggy currently serves on the boards of the Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association, California Hospice and Palliative Care Association, National Alliance for Grieving Children, Florida Council on Aging, Florida Atlantic University’s College of Nursing, Treasure Coast Food Bank, and the Treasure Coast Healthcare Coalition. She also works on the boards’ numerous committees.
She recently completed an eight-year engagement as a board director and two-year term as chair of Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP), a national accrediting body for home and community-based healthcare organizations.
In addition to her status as a previously certified healthcare compliance professional, Peggy is a member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, Florida Nurses Association, Greater Fort Lauderdale NBNA, and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care.
In 2018, Peggy received the National Hospice Foundation Innovator of Hospice Award. Her 2017 achievements include Congressional recognition for “outstanding and invaluable service to the community,” Chi Eta Phi recognition for support to nurses, and the NBNA Award for Foundational Key to Success. She received the VITAS Healthcare Award for Excellence in 2011.
Peggy earned an associate of science degree in nursing from Broward Community College.