New Haven, CT (April 5, 2018) – Ena Williams, MBA, RN, CNEP has been appointed senior vice president and chief nursing officer (CNO) for Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH). Williams has been serving as interim CNO since the retirement of the previous CNO in April 2017. Williams has indirect oversight for all nursing practice at YNHH and direct oversight for surgical, musculoskeletal, neuroscience, and nursing resource operations center, with a special focus on safety and quality, the patient experience, human resources and integration and alignment of the nursing strategic plan.
Williams joined YNHH in 1992 as a staff nurse in perioperative services and has held a number of different leadership positions during her 26 year tenure, including nursing director of Perioperative Services and vice president and associate CNO, among others. She obtained her BS in Health Studies and Management from Charter Oak State College, BSN from Western Governors University, MS in Science Management from Albertus Magnus College, MBA from Albertus Magnus and is currently completing her PhD in Leadership and Organizational Change from Walden University. Ena is also board certified in executive nursing practice.
“We are delighted to have Ena officially named chief nursing officer,” said Richard D’Aquila, president Yale New Haven Hospital. “A regionally and nationally recognized nursing leader, Ena is known for her commitment to nursing empowerment and leadership development.”
Prior to joining YNHH, Williams worked as a staff nurse leader at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. She served as an OR supervisor for four years at Hargreaves Memorial Hospital and another four years as a charge nurse at University Hospital of the West Indies both in Jamaica.
Williams is very active in the community, having served on the advisory board of the Women to Women initiative led by the Department of Public Health, expanding Yale New Haven Hospital’s collaboration with the New Haven Police Academy League summer camp and leading a number of community health initiatives with the Southern Chapter of the National Black Nurses Association, where she also served as president. Last year she was named as a recipient of The National Black Nurses Association Trailblazer Award Winner.
Williams and her husband Leonard live in Hamden and have three children.
Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), part of Yale New Haven Health, is a nationally recognized, 1,541-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826, today, YNHH has two New Haven-based campuses, and also includes Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has received Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the nation’s highest honor of nursing excellence. YNHH has a combined medical staff of about 4,500 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. www.ynhh.org
