Jeanette Ives Erickson

Jeanette Ives Erickson is currently serving as interim CEO and President of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Chief Nurse Emerita at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), an Instructor at Harvard Medical School, and Chair of the Board of Trustees and a Professor at MGH Institute of Health Professions. As Chief Nurse at MGH, she led the system’s 10 chief nursing officers in developing programs to advance the professional care environment, training programs, and advancing the role of nurse leaders on boards. Her impact and ability to create strong practice, research, and education outcomes are simultaneously expansive in scope and depth and are implemented nationally, and internationally. Using her decades long roles at Boston MGH as a platform, she created highly effective models of patient care, nursing practice, interdisciplinary teamwork, diversity and inclusion, and research infrastructures.   

One of Dr. Ives Erikson’s most influential contributions is the design, implementation, and dissemination of the Professional Practice Model. Beginning in 1995, she led the model’s creation within MGH and achieved advances in practice that improved care and enhanced quality and safety. The model provides the framework for achieving clinical outcomes, driven by critical thinkers and strong decision-makers and continues to flourish today; it is used by more than 100 healthcare institutions in 15 countries. This signature model provided the foundation for MGH to become the first hospital in Massachusetts to receive Magnet Designation by the American Nursing Credentialing Center.

In 2009, she led the creation of the Yvonne L. Munn Center for Nursing Research at MGH, building MGH’s capacity for evidence-based practice and creating a research-intensive organization. As the result of strategic relationship building, Dr. Ives Erickson changed the MGH model of philanthropy, raising $29 million, to include support for nurses. Consistently an advocate for a diverse workforce, she initiated the Clinical Leadership Collaborative for Diversity in Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The focus of the program was to support leadership development of diverse nursing students, ensuring better reflection of the state’s population. Based on this initiative, Dr. Ives Erickson received the Inaugural American Organization for Nursing Leadership Prism Award, recognizing her leadership in advancing diversity and inclusion efforts within the nursing profession and the community. 

In 2020, Dr. Ives Erickson was appointed by the Massachusetts Governor as co-medical leader and operations chief for the Boston Hope Field Hospital which served post-acute COVID-19 patients and homeless patients at the height of the pandemic. During that time, she worked closely with the Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services to change a regulation in order to allow graduate nurses to work clinically before receiving permanent licensure. As effective vaccinations emerged during the pandemic, she was commissioned to serve as Incident Commander for the Mass General Brigham system-wide effort to vaccinate, vaccinating over 100,000 patients and engaging nurses, students, and volunteers in this critical public health effort.

Dr. Ives Erickson has consulted with colleagues around the world. Most recently, she co-led the design and opening of the Jiahui International Hospital in Shanghai, China, a tertiary care facility that received a rare Joint Commission International accreditation. Earlier this year, Dr. Ives Erickson was appointed Vice-Chair of England’s National Health Service new initiative to advance innovation in nursing through an international advisory panel, The Phillips Ives Review: Preparing the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce to Deliver the Digital Future. Dr. Ives Erikson was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2007 and earned her DNP from MGH Institute of Health Professions, MA from Boston University, BSN from Westbrook College and RN Diploma from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing.