For all intents and purposes, America’s COVID-19 pandemic started in New York. That put Nassau County-based Northwell Health, the state’s largest healthcare system and the nation’s 14th largest, on the front lines from Day One.

Leading that fight is CEO Michael Dowling, who turned Northwell into New York State’s largest private employer – and steered Northwell through the crisis – leveraging lessons learned in the hardscrabble Irish village of his youth, in Albany’s corridors of power and over 20 years in the C suite.

In today’s conversation, Michael joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss Northwell’s performance during the heights of the COVID crisis, and the health system’s plans for innovation, expansion and even contraction (?!?) in a post-pandemic world.