Nurse leader membership also elects new treasurer and 5 new members to its board of directors.
Deborah Zimmermann, DNP, RN, chief clinical officer and principal of Leaders in Care, has been elected as the 2022 president-elect of the American Organization of Nurse Leaders (AONL) board of directors.
Zimmermann, who will assume the presidency January 1, 2024, most recently was the chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System and associate dean of clinical programs at the VCU School of Nursing in Richmond, Va.
She served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, practiced as a nurse practitioner and spent 25 years as a nurse executive.
Zimmermann has been an active AONL member; she sits on the board of directors, chairs the AONL Foundation board of directors, co-chairs the AACN-AONL Academic Practice Council, and is a member of the DAISY Foundation board of directors.
Previously, she served as chair of American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on the Magnet Recognition Program and as president of the New York Organization of Nurse Executives board of directors. Zimmermann holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
The AONL membership elected Simmy King, DNP, RN-BC, chief nursing informatics and education officer at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., to serve a three-year term as treasurer.
Also elected to the AONL board of directors, serving three-year terms beginning January 1, 2022, are:
- Shannon Fucik, MBA, RN, senior nursing director, emergency services, trauma, critical care transport and patient logistics, Children's Mercy Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Charles Larsen, MSN-L, MBA, RN, clinical operations regional lead, Central Logic in Phoenix, Arizona.
- Brandy Matthews, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer, UK HealthCare in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Patricia Noga, PhD, RN, vice president, clinical affairs, Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association in Burlington, Massachusetts.
- Claire Zangerle, DNP, RN, chief nurse executive, Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Carol Davis is the Nursing Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.