Written by: Sarah Barr
From becoming a nurse in the Island of Jamaica to the prestigious Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing, Ena Williams MS ‘07, MBA ‘08 is riding the wave of success.
Yes, earning her Master’s of Science in Management and MBA from Albertus Magnus College has helped her achieve the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Yale New Haven Health. And yes, her work in the industry is trailblazing. But life always seems to come full circle and – in the spirit of the Four Dominican Pillars of Study, Prayer, Community, and Service – obtaining a skillset of collaboration and critical thinking has positively impacted the lives of others.
“The Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing is the highest signal to a nurse that your career and the things you have done have had an impact on society and on nursing at a national and global level. Fellows are recognized for their substantial, sustained, and outstanding impact on health and health care. It’s very focused. For me, it was the impact on diversity in nursing and health equity. Throughout my career, I have invested time and resources to create opportunities and pipelines for minorities; sponsored scholarships for underrepresented individuals; and collaborated to develop documents and toolkits that speak to the importance of diversity in the workforce and health equity,” shared Williams of the national standards for DEI that she helped set for all hospitals and healthcare organizations.
She relates some of her latest achievements and her on the job accomplishments right back to the classrooms at Albertus.
“Oh that’s not hard at all,” She says of the greatest gift and most important skill she learned at Albertus. “As a director of an operating room, you’re responsible for nursing, operations, workflow, budget, and business. I learned to think about workflow in a different way. It’s more than just project management, it’s operations management. Gaining the language of business – assets, budgets, reading budgets, spreadsheets, balance sheets.”
This type of thinking is what led her to choose Albertus in the first place – beyond being highly recommended by peers because of Yale New Haven Health’s deep relationship with the College and economically being a good price.
“The flexibility of the program. It’s designed for adult learners, “ said Williams, listing attributes. “I could take my courses outside of working hours. The design – you take one course at a time. Every eight weeks, it’s a new course. We learned in cohorts. We worked as teams. I was not with all nurses. There were engineers, accountants, and teachers – diverse points of view and experiences.”
Diversity matters to Williams and she’s not surprised to hear that Albertus is the most diverse Catholic College in New England and has earned Federal Hispanic Serving Institution status.
To hear more from Ena Williams, join us on Tuesday, February 27th at 5:30 pm in the Behan Community Room for our Black History Month Panel Event. See below for more information.
