Kelly Doyle

Kelly Doyle began her career as a nurse, undergoing intensive training to become an RN first assistant in Rothman’s operating rooms. “It’s one of the most challenging nursing specialties because we need to know how to do everything, from foot to spine,” she says. 

It’s also physically challenging—and doctors told Doyle that she was too short and too weak to do the job. A single mother of two young kids, she was undeterred. By 2011, she’d become the first female CEO of a Philadelphia-area orthopedic hospital. Along the way, Doyle has set an impressive example for other women in orthopedics, who may just follow in her footsteps.