Northwell Appoints Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, as Chief Nursing Officer for its Manhattan Campus

A board-certified nursing executive, Dr. Woolforde will lead patient-centered nursing care, quality and safety standards

By: Margarita Oksenkrug

Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, NEA-BC, FAAN, an internationally-renowned expert in nursing and healthcare, has been named chief nursing officer at Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital (MEETH), and Lenox Health Greenwich Village (LHGV). She will be responsible for providing strategic oversight of patient-centered nursing care, including implementing quality and safety standards, as well as for fostering a highly-engaged, supportive nursing environment that ensures professionalism and collaboration. She is board-certified in nursing professional development and as an advanced nurse executive.

Dr. Woolforde previously served as vice president of nursing education and professional development for Northwell Health. In that role, she oversaw a broad scope of strategic efforts and clinical education programs that impacted more than 17,000 nurses across the enterprise. She joined the health system in 2005 and has held progressive leadership roles throughout her tenure, including as corporate director of nursing education and senior administrative director for patient care services. Dr. Woolforde began her career as a nurse in medical, surgical and critical areas and later worked as a nurse supervisor and educator at various Long Island facilities. She is currently an assistant professor of science education at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and has taught at several nursing schools throughout her career.

A prominent leader in her field, Dr. Woolforde helped Northwell achieve the Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation from the National League for Nursing (NLN), which made Northwell the first health system in the U.S. to earn this elite honor. Committed to investing in nursing education and career development, she has consistently created programs and opportunities to enable Northwell nurses to pursue and earn board certification and career progression. Northwell’s nurse certification rate among nurse leaders and frontline clinical nurses is consistently higher than the national mean for Magnet designated-hospitals.

Her other achievements include launching a centralized, systemwide, interprofessional orientation program; creating a multiphase learning curriculum for the SkyHealth air medical transport program; creating and leading the systemwide Magnet Council; spearheading the development of the oncology nursing fellowship and most recently, the systemwide nurse residency program.

Dr. Woolforde boasts an impressive list of professional achievements and prestigious accolades. She was the recipient of the 2019 International Founder’s Award for excellence in nursing practice from the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing and was named a 2019 National Certified Nurse of the Year by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

That same year, Dr. Woolforde was honored with the Columbia University, Teachers College Nursing Education Alumni Achievement Award for nursing practice and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame. In 2017, she was selected as the recipient of the national Belinda E. Puetz Founders Award from the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD). She and her teams have been finalists in the Northwell Health President’s Award program over several years.

As a highly sought-after speaker and presenter, Dr. Woolforde has been invited to lecture, teach and consult nationally and internationally on such topics as effectively influencing decision-makers, motivating and inspiring others, driving change, leading in a changing and challenging healthcare landscape, succeeding with interprofessional collaboration, and transforming the practice of nursing. She has been the principal investigator in an array of studies, which have primarily focused on nursing leadership, education and collaboration. She is an author of the current national scope and standards of practice for nursing professional development.

Dr. Woolforde is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NAM). She made numerous contributions to the profession in her two terms as a national board governor of the NLN and as a national board director of ANPD, where she launched a national diversity task force among other initiatives.

A driven nursing educator with a commitment to lifelong learning, Dr. Woolforde has earned numerous academic degrees. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Pace University, she went on to earn a master’s degree as an adult clinical nurse specialist from the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing at CUNY Hunter College and a post-masters certificate in nursing education from the College of New Rochelle School of Nursing. Dr. Woolforde subsequently earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH and a Doctor of Education (EdD) degree from Columbia University, Teachers College. She is the first nurse at Northwell to earn two doctoral degrees.

Lenox Hill, ranked by US News & World Report as one the top 10 hospitals in the state of New York has a long history of nursing achievement. It recently received the rare and coveted Magnet status for its commitment to nursing excellence and dedication to the highest quality of patient care. The prestigious international designation from the ANCC has been achieved by only eight percent of hospitals worldwide.

Lenox Hill nurses have also been honored with the Gold Beacon Award for Excellence for providing evidence-based care that has improved patient experience and outcomes. Of the 1,200 nurses employed by the hospital, 93% of clinical nurses possess a BSN degree or higher and 42% are board-certified, which is slightly above the national average.