Senior Vice President, Patient Care and Chief Nursing Officer
Boston Children's Hospital
Boston, MA
Laura J. Wood, DNP, MS, RN is Senior Vice President, Patient Care and Chief Nursing Officer, Boston Children's Hospital with responsibility for nursing and interprofessional clinical practice, research, and education in service to over 4,000 nurses, clinicians, and support team members throughout the Boston Children's Hospital system of care. Dr. Wood previously held progressive roles in pediatric care delivery organizations, academic healthcare, and industry settings including The Johns Hopkins Children's Center, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The University of Pennsylvania Health System, and Siemens Healthcare. She possesses a deep commitment to the professional practice environment of front-line nurses and teams that deliver care to children, families, and communities. Her nursing executive practice and leadership focuses on the creation of environments of care with associated outcomes to support healthy work environments, workforce planning, diversity/cultural competency, patient/employee safety and quality, patient/family experience, and technology-enabled care delivery innovation. In 2013, Dr. Wood was named as the first incumbent and principal investigator of the Sporing Carpenter Chair for Nursing, the first endowed Chair within the Harvard-affiliated academic system with funding to advance outcomes via clinical inquiry, leadership development and innovation directed through nurses and interprofessional team members.
Dr. Wood received a Bachelor of Science (BSN) degree in Nursing, Magna Cum Laude from West Virginia University School of Nursing. She has been honored as the recipient of Faculty, Alumni Leadership, and Alumni of the Year Awards from the school. She holds a Master of Science (MS) degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore with a Pediatric Oncology and Adolescent Health Clinical Nurse Specialist focus, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing where she was awarded a Fralic Fellowship as part of the school's Nurse Leader Executive Mentorship Program Award. Her evidence-based, doctoral quality improvement capstone project focused on the mitigation on intravenous infusion pump-related medication barriers by intensive care nurses via the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP).
Dr. Wood serves as a member of the Boston Children's Hospital Board of Trustees, The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Advisory Board (NAB), the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics Advisory Board, a national CNO Patient Experience Advisory Board (Press Ganey), and as a member of both the Alumni Board of Directors and Dean's Visiting Committee Board of Advisors, West Virginia University School of Nursing. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), American Nurses Association (ANA), American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA), American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA), Children’s Hospital Association’s Chief Nursing Officer forum (CHA), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the Organization of Nurse Leaders (ONL - MA/RI). She holds appointments to numerous scholastic honor societies including Mortar Board, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). Dr. Wood leads several nursing and clinical informatics professional venues with a national and global reach through service as a member of the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), the 11-person Nursing Informatics (NI) Committee for the US, and as Co-Chair (2012-15) of the Public Policy Committee, Nursing Informatics Working Group (NIWG) of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) for the US.