“Move First. Win More. Lead with Purpose.”
Dr. Derek Price is a healthcare executive, entrepreneur, physician, and transformation leader whose career has been defined by building organizations, developing high-performing teams, and restoring momentum in complex environments. Across more than two decades of professional leadership, he has operated at the intersection of healthcare delivery, business strategy, organizational performance, and human potential. From building multidisciplinary medical practices to leading major behavioral health organizations and developing new healthcare infrastructure, Derek has consistently demonstrated an ability to identify the central challenge facing an organization, establish a clear direction, and translate strategy into measurable action. His leadership philosophy is grounded in accountability, disciplined execution, continuous improvement, and a conviction that meaningful progress begins with the willingness to move.
Derek’s healthcare career began as both a clinician and an entrepreneur. After earning his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life University, graduating cum laude, he entered practice in 2001 and began developing multidisciplinary healthcare operations. As the owner of Preferred Rehab, he spent nearly 15 years building and managing medical facilities across multiple markets, gaining firsthand experience in patient care, business development, operations, team leadership, and the economics of healthcare delivery. During this period, he built or managed approximately 13 clinics and developed the practical operating perspective that would become a hallmark of his executive career. Rather than approaching healthcare solely from the clinical or corporate side, Derek learned to understand the complete organization—from the patient’s experience to the systems, people, partnerships, and financial structures required to deliver sustainable care.
That entrepreneurial foundation led Derek to increasingly sophisticated healthcare ventures. He helped build and operate Gateway, a national healthcare-practice coaching and consulting company, and later founded the Orthopedic Sports Performance Institute, where he served as Chief Executive Officer and Business Development Strategist. At OSPI, Derek assembled a multidisciplinary organization of approximately 35 professionals spanning orthopedic and sports medicine, spine and pain care, rehabilitation, primary care, behavioral health, and complementary medicine. Building the organization from inception required him to integrate specialties that often operate independently, create an effective operating structure, recruit and lead talented professionals, develop referral and revenue channels, and maintain a unified patient experience. He ultimately exited the organization successfully, carrying those lessons in vertical integration and enterprise building into larger healthcare leadership roles.
Derek subsequently brought his operator’s mindset into behavioral healthcare at a significantly greater scale. As Chief Executive Officer of Desert Hope Treatment Center for American Addiction Centers, he was recruited into an organization confronting substantial financial and cultural instability. Leading approximately 300 employees, he helped guide the organization through the extraordinary operational pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously working to improve culture, census, referral relationships, and financial performance. Under his leadership, residential census increased from below 60 percent to approximately 80 percent, the facility’s veteran population grew more than fourfold, and a dedicated VA housing and intensive outpatient program was developed. By diversifying referral relationships and strengthening the operating model, Derek helped return the organization to profitability while reinforcing the connection between mission, culture, and disciplined execution.
His success in behavioral health leadership led to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of Sierra Tucson within Acadia Healthcare. There, Derek assumed responsibility for a premier residential mental health and addiction treatment organization with a workforce of approximately 400 employees. Across his senior executive roles, he has held end-to-end responsibility for healthcare operations representing more than $100 million in P&L responsibility. His experience encompasses clinical quality, regulatory compliance, payer and contracting strategy, revenue-cycle management, workforce design, facility operations, business development, patient access, and the complete movement of a patient through a healthcare organization. This breadth allows him to view organizational challenges not as isolated departmental issues, but as interconnected problems requiring enterprise-level solutions.
Today, Derek serves as President and Co-Founder of Salia Healthcare, where he is helping build a direct-pay healthcare infrastructure platform designed for self-insured employers. The company’s model seeks to reduce unnecessary healthcare costs, improve access, eliminate friction, and better align employers, providers, and patients through transparent, pre-arranged pricing and direct payment. Derek leads strategy, provider network development, contracting, go-to-market execution, employer adoption, provider partnerships, and the operational infrastructure necessary to scale the platform. His work at Salia reflects the progression of his career: from treating individual patients, to building practices, to integrating multidisciplinary organizations, to leading large healthcare enterprises, and ultimately to helping redesign the infrastructure through which healthcare is accessed and paid for.
Beyond his operating roles, Derek brings substantial experience in management consulting, strategic planning, project and program management, corporate training, team building, executive coaching, and leadership development. He has written articles across multiple industries and participated in numerous speaking engagements throughout his career, translating practical leadership experience into lessons that other executives, teams, and organizations can apply. He is also the creator of Move First Win More, a leadership framework centered on informed action, disciplined iteration, and the belief that leaders create momentum by moving intelligently rather than waiting indefinitely for perfect conditions. He founded Club Faction and authored The Field Manual: 7 Rules of Engagement for Men of Honor, further reflecting his longstanding interest in character, leadership, accountability, and purposeful living.
Derek’s approach to leadership has also been shaped by experiences far beyond the executive suite. A graduate of the University of Iowa, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and played Hawkeyes football, Derek went on to compete professionally as a Detroit Lions player. He has served as a SEALFIT Senior Cadre, earned a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, and completed multiple IRONMAN events. These experiences have reinforced qualities that consistently appear throughout his professional career: preparation, resilience, composure under pressure, personal accountability, and an expectation that leaders remain visible when circumstances become difficult. He continues to coach executives and young athletes and has led executive adventure programs designed to challenge participants physically, mentally, and professionally.
At this stage of his career, Derek is selectively pursuing board and advisory opportunities where his combination of healthcare expertise, operating experience, entrepreneurship, and transformational leadership can create meaningful value. He is particularly well positioned to advise healthcare services organizations, behavioral health companies, employer health platforms, multi-site provider groups, healthcare technology businesses, and organizations pursuing growth, integration, turnaround, or cultural transformation. His perspective is especially valuable when an organization must bridge the gap between an ambitious strategy and the operational realities required to execute it. He understands growth not merely as a financial objective, but as the product of strong systems, capable people, aligned incentives, disciplined decision-making, and a culture prepared to perform.
For Derek, board service represents an opportunity to apply decades of accumulated experience in a new capacity while contributing to organizations and communities that can benefit from it. He brings the perspective of someone who has been a clinician, founder, owner, consultant, coach, CEO, and enterprise builder—and who understands both the human and financial consequences of executive decisions. With greater capacity to devote his experience to advisory leadership, he is motivated to help companies navigate complex problems, recognize opportunities, develop stronger leaders, and grow in the right direction. His objective is not simply to occupy a board seat, but to contribute practical knowledge, thoughtful challenge, and an operator’s understanding of what it takes to turn decisions into results.
Ultimately, Derek’s career reflects a consistent theme: stepping into demanding environments and creating clarity, structure, and forward movement. Whether building a medical organization from the ground up, restoring profitability to a challenged healthcare facility, leading hundreds of employees through uncertainty, coaching an executive, or developing a new model for healthcare delivery, he approaches leadership as an active responsibility. His professional philosophy combines decisive action with thoughtful strategy and high expectations with a genuine commitment to people. That combination positions Dr. Derek C. Price as a compelling board and advisory leader for organizations seeking not only experienced guidance, but the perspective of an executive who has repeatedly built, transformed, and led from inside the operation.
Character:
Derek leads with accountability, resilience, integrity, and a strong sense of personal responsibility, qualities reinforced by experiences spanning healthcare, entrepreneurship, elite athletics, endurance competition, and executive leadership. He believes leadership is demonstrated through action and example, particularly when circumstances are difficult and an organization needs clarity, confidence, and consistency.
Knowledge:
He brings deep knowledge of healthcare operations, organizational transformation, strategic planning, business development, clinical delivery, payer relationships, revenue cycles, provider networks, and executive leadership. His experience as a clinician, entrepreneur, consultant, owner, CEO, and healthcare infrastructure builder gives him an unusually broad understanding of how strategy, people, operations, and economics interact across an enterprise.
Strategic:
Derek has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to diagnose complex organizational challenges, establish priorities, align stakeholders, and convert strategy into practical execution. His experience building businesses, integrating multidisciplinary healthcare models, leading turnarounds, developing new revenue channels, and creating healthcare infrastructure enables him to contribute both long-range perspective and an operator’s understanding of what successful implementation requires.
Communication:
An experienced speaker, coach, trainer, and executive leader who communicates complex ideas with clarity, conviction, and a strong orientation toward action. Whether addressing a leadership team, guiding employees through organizational change, coaching an individual executive, or contributing in a boardroom, he works to establish shared understanding, encourage candid dialogue, and move people toward purposeful decisions.
