New Haven, CT (March 6, 2025) – Ena Williams, PhD, RN, has been named chief nurse executive (CNE) of Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS). She has been a nurse with Yale New Haven Health for 32 years, advancing to the role of chief nursing officer (CNO) for Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) in 2018.
Williams joined the staff at YNHH in 1992 as a nurse in the Operating Room. She assumed the role of CNO in 2018. As CNO, she led the team through the first American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), Nurse Residency Accreditation in the State and third Magnet Redesignation. The prestigious ANCC Magnet designation is the highest honor of nursing excellence a hospital can achieve. She led the nursing team through the COVID-19 pandemic and, most recently, YNHH was awarded the 2024 ANCC Magnet Prize, sponsored by Press Ganey, for the development of a patient experience survey tool for psychiatric inpatients.
As YNHHS chief nurse executive, Williams will steward three Magnet efforts in 2025. Bridgeport Hospital has applied for Magnet Recognition for the first time; and Yale New Haven and Greenwich hospitals will seek redesignation. Across YNHHS, Williams will lead the standardization and implementation of nursing best practices to improve quality, expand innovative training opportunities and leverage our talent to meet the needs of a changing healthcare environment.
At the national level, Ena serves on The Joint Commission Board of Commissioners and the American Nurses Foundation Board of Trustees. She was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) in 2023 and was named as one of Modern Healthcare’s 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives for 2024. She will become the American Organization for Nursing Leadership board president in 2026.
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, is recognized for advanced clinical care, quality, service, cost effectiveness and commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves. YNHHS includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians. YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine and the largest academic multi-specialty practice in New England. Yale New Haven Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. www.ynhhs.org
