Karen (Kathy) Reno, PhD, MBA, RN, EDAC
Consultant, Joint Commission Resources, Inc.
Karen Reno has more than 40 years of experience in health care, most spent in administrative roles as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer. Dr. Reno serves as a consultant for Joint Commission Resources and Joint Commission International on patient safety and safe facility design. She also holds a half-time appointment as an assistant clinical professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) College of Nursing. In addition, she developed and now serves as coordinator for the executive nursing leadership concentration of the Doctor in Nursing Practice (DNP) program.
Health care facility design has been one of Dr. Reno’s interests for her entire career. She has worked on numerous building projects, including renovation as well as new construction. She is a member of the Center for Health Design. She served as co-author of the first workbook on evidence-based design and holds EDAC accreditation. She has consulted on this topic in the Middle East, Europe, China, South America, and Indonesia as well as the US.
Dr. Reno has been active in many state and national boards and advisory groups. She served two terms on the national board for AONE and the AHA Regional Policy Board for the Midwest region. She was one of the founding board members for Nursing Spectrum, a nursing magazine published by Gannett. She served as president and multiple board and committee roles in the Illinois Organization for Nurse Leaders (IONL). Her interest in health care technology led her to several board and advisory roles. She served on the board of the National Alliance for Healthcare Informatics (NAHIT) whose mission is to align key health care stakeholders in order to standardize health care IT systems. She also served on the American Hospital Association (AHA) and American Organization of Nurse Executives’ (AONE) Technology Task Forces as well as nursing advisory committees for McKesson Clinical Systems and Zynx, an evidence-based web subscription service owned by Hearst Publications. She has served on multiple hospital and hospice boards and committees.
Dr. Reno has lectured on numerous topics both domestically and internationally including safe facility design, board relations, hospital finances, safety, and technology.
Organizational recognitions received during her leadership include Solucient’s (now known as Thompson-Reuters) and Healthgrades’ top awards for multiple clinical excellence areas, ANCC’s Magnet™ certification, Chicago Magazine’s top 25 employers in Chicago, and Fortune Magazine’s recognition as one of America’s top 100 employers for multiple years.
Her educational background includes a diploma in nursing from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; a bachelor’s of science in nursing and management from Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; master’s in business administration in marketing from DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois; and a PhD in organization development from Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois.
Her professional affiliations include Sigma Theta Tau, AONE, IONL, Council for Graduate Education in Administrative Nursing (CGEAN), ACHE, HFMA, AUPHA, Center For Health Design and the Academy of Management.