Kathleen S. Jose, RN, MSN, is chief nursing officer of Lahey Clinic, a nonprofit, multispecialty health care organization based in Burlington, Mass. Prior to being named CNO in September 1999, Jose was the director of education and clinical guidelines at Lahey. In her 29 years with the Clinic, she has also served as clinical manager, nurse manager, and administrative supervisor in both inpatient and outpatient settings.

Jose is responsible for ensuring high-quality patient care and advancing the nursing profession at Lahey. Her work includes the creation of strategies and systems that value and support nursing education and research; the provision of formal mentoring and development programs for all nurses; and the creation of innovative recruitment and retention programs. She also manages and promotes relationships between nursing and its many customers.

In addition, Jose is in charge of planning operational programs to improve patient satisfaction, facilitate patient flow, and control costs. As a member of the Senior Executive Management Team, Jose assists the chief operating officer and Board of Governors, the body of physicians that serves as the organization’s executive leadership, with the development of Clinic policies, procedures, strategies, goals and objectives.

Jose received her associate's degree from Northeastern University and her bachelor's and master's degrees from Regis College. In July 2000, she graduated from the Johnson & Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management for Nurse Executives, a three-week, intensive management education program held at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Jose was one of only 37 chief nursing officers worldwide admitted to the highly competitive program that year.

Jose is currently a member of the Regis College-Emmanuel College At-Large Nursing Honor Society, the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives (MONE), the American Organization of Nurse Executives, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing-Epsilon Chapter, and the Nursing Executive Center of the Advisory Board Company. She is on the board of directors for MONE and is a member of the MONE Government Affairs Committee.

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A teaching hospital affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, Lahey Clinic is world-renowned for innovative technology, pioneer medical treatment, and leading-edge research. Within a group practice structure, more than 400 physicians and 4,000 nurses, therapists, technologists and others at Lahey Clinic provide care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine. Primary care services are available in more than a dozen Massachusetts communities.