New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health has named Launette Woolforde, EdD, DNP, as its next executive vice president and chief nursing officer.
Dr. Woolforde succeeds Maureen White, RN, who is retiring after a 50-year career at Northwell. Ms. White spent more than two decades as CNO, during which time she helped build a nursing workforce strategy that significantly lowered turnover rates and expanded front-line nurse leadership through hundreds of collaborative care councils. During her tenure, the health system’s turnover rate was consistently among the lowest in the nation.
Dr. Woolforde will oversee 22,000 nurses across Northwell’s 28 hospitals and 1,000 outpatient facilities. Her healthcare career spans 32 years, including the last 20 at Northwell. Most recently, she served as deputy CNO, working with Ms. White to elevate nursing practice and improve patient care, according to a Nov. 3 health system news release.
Dr. Woolforde is also the former system vice president of nursing and CNO of three of the health system’s hospitals. In her prior roles, she oversaw the development of Northwell’s nurse residency program, which launched in 2019, and played a key role in the launch of the system’s air medical transplant program in 2014.
