Kelly Johnson, PhD, RN, NEA-BC
WCSI Faculty Associate
WCSI Caritas Coach®
Dr. Kelly Johnson, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, is a proven healthcare executive and people leader with an extensive track record of success. Strategic and collaborative, influential and innovative, Kelly has 29 years of experience as a Chief Nursing Executive, driving executional excellence, high quality outcomes, and creating work cultures where team members thrive. Kelly is a culturally astute transformational leader who models the way with humility, integrity and from a values driven perspective. Compassion is a core value for herself and others, and Dr. Johnson wholeheartedly subscribes to heart driven leadership in healthcare.
Dr. Kelly Johnson’s clinical background is in the neurosciences, with a specialty in traumatic spinal cord injury. Kelly led professional nursing practice at Craig Hospital, Children’s Colorado, Stanford Children’s Health, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, and Queens Health System, leading Craig Hospital and Stanford Children’s to their first Magnet designations. She has been successful in anchoring professional nursing practice in the theory of human caring in every organization she has led.
Dr. Kelly Johnson earned her BSN from the University of Northern Colorado, MSN from The University of California San Francisco in neuroscience and family health care, and a PhD in nursing from the University of Colorado in health outcomes. Kelly’s dissertation work focused on compassion fatigue in pediatric nurses.
Dr. Kelly Johnson resides in Hawaii with her family and enjoys the ocean, beaches, hiking and her three grand children.