Richard Cuming, RN, MSN, EdD, NEA-BC, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Jackson Health System, has been named one of only 20 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Executive Nurse Fellows from across the country for 2012.
Cuming joins a select group of nurse leaders chosen to participate in this threeyear, world-class leadership development program that is enhancing nurse leaders’ effectiveness in improving the nation’s healthcare system.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Cuming began his career as a critical care nurse. He joined Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1991 as a staff nurse in the operating room, and held a variety of positions in the hospital and hospital system before being appointed senior vice president and chief nursing executive in 2011.
Cuming currently serves as presidentelect of the board of directors for the Nursing Consortium of South Florida, and is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Nurses Association, Florida Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives and Sigma Theta Tau International. He holds adjunct faculty appointments as a professor in the school of nursing at both Florida International University and at the University of Miami.
Begun by RWJF in 1998, the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows (ENF) program strengthens the leadership capacity of nurses who aspire to shape healthcare locally and nationally. The program will provide Cuming and his colleagues with coaching, education and other support to strengthen their abilities to lead teams and organizations in improving health and health care. The ENF program is located at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), and co-directed by Linda Cronenwett, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Beerstecher Blackwell Term Professor and former dean of the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and David Altman, PhD, executive vice president of Research, Innovation and Product Development at CCL.
“Now more than ever, with our healthcare system preparing to care for millions more patients, many of whom are living longer but with more chronic conditions, we need nurse leaders who are well prepared to participate as full partners in this historic transformation,” Cronenwett said.
“The RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program has a proud history of building and enhancing the leadership skills of extraordinary nurses all across the country. We are delighted to be able to work with this new cohort. Each of our new Executive Nurse Fellows has made a powerful commitment to improving health and health care and is poised to become an even more effective leader,” she added.
“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to participate in this world-class leadership development program,” Cuming said. “To have the resources of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Center for Creative Leadership is tremendous. As a professional nursing leader at one of the country’s largest public hospital systems, I know there’s a lot I can share from Jackson’s experience and a lot that this exceptional group of nurses will be able to teach me for the benefit of the South Florida community.” Executive Nurse Fellows hold senior leadership positions in health services, scientific and academic organizations, public health and community-based organizations or systems, and national professional, governmental and policy organizations. They continue in their current positions during their fellowships, and during the fellowship each develops, plans and implements a new initiative to improve healthcare delivery in her or his community. For more information about the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program visit onine at www.ExecutiveNurseFellows.org
For more information about the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, visit online at www.rwjf.org
