Karen G. Keady, PhD, RN, NEA-BC

Bio

As the Chief Nursing Executive (CNE) at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Karen Keady oversees nursing responsibilities for Strong Memorial Hospital, Highland Hospital, and affiliated UR Medicine hospitals. As CNE since 2018, she provides leadership for more than 3,500 nurses, patient care technicians, and unit secretaries at Strong Memorial Hospital, an 846-bed teaching hospital which also includes the Wilmot Cancer Center and Golisano Children’s Hospital, and Highland, a 260-bed community hospital.

Keady joined the Johns Hopkins Health System in 1989 as a nurse on the Neuro Critical Care Unit and served in a variety of roles in subsequent years, including nurse manager and director of medical and radiology nursing. She was also a faculty associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing for the past 20 years. In 2014, she was named CNO at Howard County General Hospital, a Johns Hopkins Health System affiliate, where she led a staff of more than 1,200 nurses and techs to significant improvement in patient care.

An upstate New York native, Keady earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Towson University and her master’s and PhD in nursing from Johns Hopkins. She is a speaker and published author in heart failure self-care, cognitive impairment, and leadership development, and is board-certified as an Advanced Nurse Executive.