Meet Our Executives

Alice Issai

President, Adventist Health Glendale

Alice Issai, MBA, joined Adventist Health Glendale as the new president in July 2018. Alice came to us from Keck Medicine of USC where she served as chief operating officer for Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital. During her tenure, Alice was responsible for developing high-performing teams, driving a culture of accountability, expanding access to excellent and affordable care in Los Angeles, and building trust, partnership and collaboration with physicians and leaders. Prior to Keck Medicine, Alice held several chief executive-level positions in finance, business strategy and operations at world-class institutions like UC Irvine Health, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles and West Los Angeles, and City of Hope National Medical Center.

Alice received her undergraduate degree in business administration and finance at Andrews University in Michigan, and completed her MBA at Pepperdine University. Alice and her family have lived in the Glendale community for nearly 40 years.

Elizabeth L. Cochran

Operations Executive

“Liz” L. Cochran, RRT, MHA, FACHE, comes to Adventist Health Glendale with over 35 years of clinical and hospital operations experience in Southern California, having recently served as chief operating officer at Providence’s Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, CA. where she was responsible for the operations of the 400-bed non-profit medical center, a 26-bed free standing skilled nursing facility and the Disney Family Cancer Center. During her tenure at St. Joe’s, Liz demonstrated leadership expertise in efficient and effective operations, financial management and business and strategy development.

Liz started her healthcare career as a respiratory care practitioner at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. After providing direct patient care for over 13 years. At Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles, she rose to various clinical leadership roles including the medical center’s support services hospital administrator before leaving the system to take on a senior vice president role overseeing a vast area of operations at Long Beach Memorial and Miller Children’s Hospital. From there Liz went on to serve as associate vice president of planning, construction and facilities at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles from 2008-2015, where she led the build-out and relocation move into the new 460,000-square-foot state-of-the-art new hospital facility.

Since Liz joined Adventist Health in November 2018, her time here has successfully demonstrated a strong track record in leadership providing strategic vision of future goals for business and operational improvements, she is an innovative thinker, builds and mentors strong teams by creating a learning environment, provides process improvements in hospital operations, departmental financial performance and expertise in capital planning and construction.

“I am proud to serve and be a part of an outstanding community hospital” “Our ability to provide safe and expert tertiary care to our patients within a community hospital is one of the key reasons I enjoy being at Adventist Health Glendale”.

Liz and her husband have two children and two grandchildren, including two furry kids. The family gathers frequently and enjoys vacations, family dinners and events. Liz likes to use her experience with construction and is often looking for remodeling projects at home.

Robert Bonner

Finance Officer

Since joining Adventist Health Glendale in October 2021, Bonner has led through the financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on productivity, staffing and earnings. With his impressive background, Bonner will serve the medical center well as it continues to enhance the financial health, prepare for expanded oncology services, and implement a multimillion-dollar capital investment in new equipment and expand facilities.

Bonner brings nearly 25 years of experience in healthcare finance, most recently as chief finance officer for the Southwest Division of Dignity Health, a system comprised of nine hospitals across southern California and Nevada with combined annual net revenue of $3 billion. In his four and a half years with Dignity Health, Rob drove improvements in managed care payor rates and productivity.

Previously, he served from 2012-2017 as regional CFO and vice president of financial operations for Prime Healthcare Services, a $2.5 billion healthcare company with 28 hospitals, and, from 2007-2012, as chief accounting officer of Alta Hospital Systems, comprising five hospitals in Orange and Los Angeles counties. His prior finance leadership includes roles as controller and finance director at hospitals and healthcare systems across the West Coast.

A graduate of the University of Oregon with a bachelor's degree in finance and management, he earned his M.B.A. from California State University, San Bernardino.

Elizabeth LaBorde

President of Philanthropy

A 29-year veteran of healthcare fundraising, LaBorde leads multi-million dollar campaigns to continue to advance technology and services for the hospital and the patients we serve. Principally, her development work here is focused on launching our Breast Center, modernizing our catheterization labs, increasing the number of surgical suites and establishing corporate giving and endowments to ensure our 116-year history of healing can continue and expand.

Before joining Adventist Health Glendale in 2021, LaBorde led major gift campaigns for City of Hope and Providence Saint Joseph. Previously she led development and fundraising for the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, Make-A-Wish America, the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and its Saban Research Institute.

Over her career, LaBorde has participated in campaigns totaling more than $1 billion.

Dr. Ramella Markarian

Business Development Executive

Dr. Ramella Markarian is an accomplished healthcare professional, serving as Vice President of Business Development at Adventist Health Glendale since 2012.

As a transformational executive and a visionary leader, Ramella holds an impressive track record in hospital and healthcare administration, surpassing ambitious organizational goals. She has been instrumental in advancing the hospital’s strategic growth and development and leading physician recruitment and relations efforts. Ramella supports marketing and community well-being initiatives and oversees diabetes, wound care, hyperbaric and the senior live well programs. Her expertise in conducting physicians’ needs analysis has allowed her to identify the healthcare gaps in Primary and Specialty care; her dedication to fill those gaps inspired her to successfully recruit, engage, develop, and retain hundreds of skilled physicians in the Glendale, La Crescenta and La Cañada communities.

Ramella is also known as a community activist and a civic leader. Appointed by Assemblywomen Laura Friedman, Ramella served 8 years (2008-2014) on the city of Glendale’s Community Development Block Grant commission where she oversaw the annual community needs assessment and, along with the committee members, determined funding priorities, evaluated funding proposals and made funding recommendations to the Glendale City Council.

In 2016 Ramella was appointed to Los Angeles County’s Health Equity and Equality task force committee by county supervisor Kathryn Barger where she served for two years providing her knowledge and expertise in strategic direction for community health planning in Los Angeles County, which includes the Community Health Assessment (CHA), Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), and other strategic efforts to promote strong population health, health equity, and racial justice.

Ramella is active and passionately serves on the Glendale Police Department’s foundation board, Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry board, The Armenian American Medical Society committee, Glendale Communitas homeless prevention program and Adventist Health cancer care guild. She is a frequent guest speaker at local universities, colleges, and high schools, inspiring and sharing her knowledge and expertise with our youth.

Dr. Ramella Markarian holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master's degree in Healthcare Administration from Cal State University Los Angeles and a Doctorate degree in Leadership with a focus in Healthcare from the University of Southern California.