Laura J. Wood

As Executive Vice President Patient Care Operations, System Chief Nursing Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Laura Wood leads the discipline of nursing and provides system-level oversight of patient care delivery throughout the organization’s network and satellite locations. Boston Children’s serves as the pediatric training center for Harvard Medical School, where nurses in concert with interprofessional care teams actively translate science to care delivery as part of the world’s largest pediatric research enterprise — treating more children with rare and complex conditions than any other hospital in the world. Boston Children’s is currently recognized by U.S. News & World Report “Best Children’s Hospitals 2020-2021” as the #1-ranked children’s hospital in the nation, maintaining that distinction for the past seven consecutive years.

Since joining Boston Children’s in 2013, Wood has further strengthened the hospital’s exceptional nursing practice environment through the creation of novel care delivery strategies, the implementation of advanced practice clinician career advancement models, expansion of healthy work environment education with positive system-wide outcomes, quality-safety-experience innovations in alignment with the quadruple aim and the value of care provided, and child-health and informatics public policy advocacy at a national level. Since 2014, she jointly launched and has led the organization’s high reliability organization (HRO) quality improvement initiative with the hospital’s president and COO and other key leaders, resulting in ongoing reductions in the rate of serious safety events and numerous improvements to care quality — including national recognition of nurse-sensitive outcomes measurement performance. Under Wood’s leadership, Boston Children’s nursing has achieved ANCC Magnet® re-designation representing the most prestigious international distinction a health care organization can receive for direct care nursing excellence, as well as numerous specialty-focused awards including the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Beacon Award recognition in all five intensive care units and three successive Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award designations.

Earlier in her career, Wood held progressive nursing and operational leadership roles within three leading academic health care settings: The Johns Hopkins Hospital Children's Center, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and The University of Pennsylvania Health System serving in pediatric nursing, educational, and operations improvement roles. Additionally, she served as National Vice President, Clinical Solutions, Siemens Healthcare (now Cerner Corporation), where she managed clinical and business professional services, and subsequently led clinical IT business development for the entire U.S.

Wood received a Bachelor of Science (BSN) degree in Nursing, Magna Cum Laude, from West Virginia University School of Nursing; a Master of Science (MS) degree from The University of Maryland, Baltimore; and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Johns Hopkins University Fralic Nursing Fellowship. In 2012, she was named a Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow as part of a selective three-year national executive leadership program. Wood has served on a variety of child and education focused non-profit boards over the past two decades. She currently serves as a member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees, as Principal Investigator for the Sporing Carpenter Chair in Nursing, and as a member of numerous national nursing advisory boards including: The Beryl Institute’s Nurse Executive Council, CRICO’s Nursing Advisory Board, Greater Boston Nursing Collective, Harvard Medical School Bioethics Hospital Advisory Board, Johns Hopkins University Nursing Advisory Board, The Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Council, and the Press Ganey CNO Advisory Board.

Wood resides in Belmont, Mass., with her husband, Larry Quartana, PhD, and has an adult son.