Name: Karen Keady
Previous title: System chief nursing officer, Vanderbilt Health
New title: Chief nurse executive, Mass General Brigham
Keady will join Mass General Brigham on Oct. 5 as the health system’s first chief nurse executive, according to a release emailed to Healthcare Dive.
She departs from Vanderbilt Health on Oct. 1, where she served as the system’s chief nursing officer since 2024, overseeing more than 12,000 nurses and other employees.
At Mass General Brigham, Keady will work closely with nursing leadership and other clinical leaders to support employees and expand education and leadership development, the health system said. She’ll also serve on Mass General Brigham’s senior committees, which the health system said will ensure nursing is represented at “the highest levels” of its decision-making.
“The appointment marks an important milestone in Mass General Brigham’s commitment to elevating nursing leadership across the system and ensuring nurses have a strong, consistent voice in clinical, operational, and strategic decision-making,” the health system said in a release.
The announcement comes a month after about 4,000 nurses at Mass General Brigham and Women’s Hospital and 450 clinicians at MGB’s Home Care went on strike, the largest nurse and healthcare walkout in Massachusetts’ history, according to their union. Nurses and other workers said they took to the picket line hoping to secure better wages, protection of patient care services and affordable health insurance.
The union and Mass General Brigham are still locked in a contract dispute, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the union that represents the workers.
