Middletown Press
By Ginny Monk
Published September 26, 2021

Sonja LaBarbera, with a background in speech pathology, is the first clinician to hold the position of president and chief executive officer of Gaylord Specialty Healthcare in nearly 40 years. LaBarbera, 47, has been in the job since January 2019 and has worked in health care for a quarter-century.

In October 2020, under LaBarbera’s leadership, Gaylord opened the Milne Institute for Healthcare Innovation.

LaBarbera, also the first woman to head Gaylord, serves on the board of directors of Gaylord Hospital/Gaylord Farm Association Inc., which oversees all the organization’s services. Recently, LaBarbera was named to the Hartford Business Journal 2020 list of Power 25 in Healthcare.