Updates announced for Nebraska Medicine senior leadership team

James Linder, MD, CEO of Nebraska Medicine, announced updates to the Nebraska Medicine senior leadership team on Wednesday, March 13.

I am pleased to announce several changes to the Nebraska Medicine senior leadership structure. These changes are effective today. As I detail the biggest changes below, please keep in mind these updates are “budget neutral” – which means there are no additional costs to the organization. The number of chiefs and vice presidents stays the same, however some roles and reporting relationships are evolving.

Michael Ash, MD, will serve as president and chief operating officer, a promotion from his prior role of executive vice president-chief operating officer. The Nebraska Medicine Board of Directors unanimously approved this promotion. Many of you have heard him say, “Build confidence, earn trust.” In his 10 years with Nebraska Medicine, Dr. Ash has done that by directing our health system to a position of national leadership in clinical quality and safety, and in information technology excellence. Dr. Ash assuming the role of president will allow me to focus more time on health system strategy and continuing to build community and philanthropic support for efforts such as Project NExT and the “Only in Nebraska” campaign. These efforts are key to the future of Nebraska Medicine and to our region. As the health system president, Dr. Ash will continue to expand our clinical services across Nebraska and optimize nursing and health system operations at our current facilities.

I’m also announcing a change in the role of chief nursing officer. Kelly Vaughn begins that role this week. Kelly brings deep clinical knowledge, a dedicated approach to nurse advocacy and experience implementing enterprise-level technology aimed at making the lives of nurses easier. She began her career with Nebraska Medicine more than 26 years ago as a nursing assistant and most recently served as vice president of operations, leading Bellevue Medical Center. In our revised organizational structure, the CNO reports to the president and COO to best align operations. As CNO, Kelly will also have a seat on the Nebraska Medicine Board of Directors.

I’m pleased to share that Sue Nuss, PhD, is starting a new role as clinical workforce development officer for Nebraska Medicine and as an assistant vice chancellor at UNMC. In these roles, Dr. Nuss will formulate solutions to the ongoing workforce shortage by building our pipeline between UNMC, Clarkson College and other regional nursing and allied health schools. This is a vital role, and in it, Dr. Nuss will continue as a direct report to the CEO. She and I will provide more details about this new role in an upcoming communication.

With our expanding clinical activities and responsibilities, Kyle Skiermont, PharmD, is being promoted to senior vice president of Operations. Dr. Skiermont’s experience as a pharmacist, as a health system leader, and in the business world make him ideally suited for this new role. In addition to leading the Genetic Insights Project, this expanded role will allow Dr. Skiermont to continue leading Pharmacy and Cancer and will take on leadership responsibilities for Ambulatory, Diagnostic and Procedural services. Tom Macy and Matt Pospisil continue in their current roles and will work under Dr. Skiermont’s leadership.

Julie Lazure has been named vice president – nurse executive. Julie will build on her decades of extraordinary experience to assume administrative leadership of Bellevue Medical Center and other hospital-based nursing departments. Additionally, she will lead nursing practice and provide operational leadership to our Innovation Design Unit.

Tiffany Joekel has been promoted to vice president of Government Affairs. This promotion reflects her exceptional representation of Nebraska Medicine to our public partners and the growing importance and impact of local, state and federal legislation on the operations of our health system.

We will continue to share information about these changes in the days and weeks ahead. Extraordinary organizations never stand still. Nebraska Medicine will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our patients, to create the best possible work environment for the thousands of extraordinary colleagues here, and to be ready for the future.