Joyce C. Clifford PhD, RN, FAAN is the President and CEO of The Institute for Nursing Healthcare Leadership (INHL). Before founding INHL, she served as Senior Vice President and Nurse-in-Chief at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA for more than 25 years. She holds an appointment as Lecturer at Harvard Medical School.
Joyce is internationally known for developing a professional nursing practice model that is considered the benchmark for professionalism in nursing, and that integrates scholarship and service in direct care, promotes nursing practice development, and improves patient care outcomes. In recognition of this work, her nursing management team at the former Beth Israel Hospital won the prestigious Mary Adelaide Nutting Award from the National League for Nursing in 1995. Joyce is also known for promoting models of interdisciplinary collaborative practice.
A graduate of St. Anselm College, Joyce received her masters in nursing from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in Health Planning and Policy Analysis at the Heller School of Brandeis University. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a former President of the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Hospital Association from 1991-1994. In addition, she is a trustee for her alma mater, St. Anselm College, and was the first nurse to be a member of the Harvard Medical School's Admissions Committee.
Widely recognized for her contributions to nursing, Joyce has received numerous awards, most recently a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She was a member of the charter class of the Johnson and Johnson-Wharton Fellows Program in Management for nurses; served as a Commissioner on the National Commission on Nursing in 1988; and, in 1995, was a member of the committee on the Adequacy of Nurse Staffing of the Institute of Medicine. She has served on the Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ)-sponsored council on Economic Impact of Health System Change and is currently a member of the National Advisory Committee of the RWJ Executive Nurse Fellows Program.
