Spotlight on Women in Healthcare Leadership: Stacey Conklin

In this edition of Everly’s Women in Healthcare Leadership Spotlight Series, we sit down with Stacey Conklin, Chief Nursing Officer of Montefiore Nyack Hospital. Stacey’s path into healthcare leadership was not linear, nor was it driven by an early ambition to one day become a senior executive. A second-career nurse with a background in finance and operations, Stacey found nursing after becoming a mother, following the encouragement of people who saw something in her before she fully saw it herself.

What emerges from Stacey’s story is a leadership philosophy rooted in honesty, humility, and deep connection to the people doing the work. She speaks openly about the challenges of nursing, the complexity of executive decision-making, the emotional toll of leadership, and the importance of staying close to the bedside even from the C-suite.

A Nontraditional Path to Nursing

Stacey did not begin her career in healthcare. Before becoming a nurse, she worked for a local window company, where she handled inventory, pricing, customer service, and operational responsibilities. It was work that leaned into her natural affinity for numbers, finance, and problem-solving – strengths that continue to serve her today in an executive role.

“I was very much into finance and numbers,” Stacey says. “Which helps me in this role.”

Her decision to pursue nursing came after the birth of her first child. Friends who were nurses encouraged her to consider the profession, telling her she would be good at it. At first, she resisted the idea. But when another friend wanted to go to nursing school, they decided to take the leap together. Stacey credits her husband’s support as a turning point: “My husband was very supportive, and he said, ‘Do it.’ So I did.”

The path was demanding. Stacey completed her nursing degree while raising a young child and had a second child during the process. She describes it as challenging, and not necessarily the way she would recommend doing it. But once she entered the nursing coursework, something clicked.

“Once I started hitting the nursing classes, I loved it,” she says. “I never looked back.”

Stacey was captured by the complexity of the work: anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and the way all of it connected in the care of a patient. Nursing gave Stacey something that was both intellectually engaging and deeply human. It was rigorous and relational at the same time.

At first, she thought she might pursue women’s health or become a midwife. But she fell in love with caring for elderly patients, particularly on a cardiac floor, where she found meaning in the pace and depth of bedside care.

Leadership, however, was not part of the original plan. “Nobody ever graduates school and thinks they’ll be the CNO,” she says. “Certainly not me. I was very happy being a nurse.”

It was others  -  colleagues, managers, and mentors  -  who began nudging her toward leadership. When an assistant manager position opened, Stacey initially hesitated. But those around her continued to encourage her, and her manager reassured her that if she tried it and did not like it, she could return to staff nursing.

“That’s kind of how I did it,” Stacey says. “It was really the people around me seeing my potential in a leadership role that started me on the leadership path.”

Years later, her second master’s degree at Dartmouth helped crystallize that path. In a cohort that included healthcare leaders from across disciplines and geographies, Stacey began to see herself differently. The experience gave her the confidence to name a goal she had not originally imagined for herself: “I think I can do this. I can be a CNO.”

Staying Close to the Work

Stacey’s early years at the bedside continue to shape the way she leads. She remembers what it felt like to be a new nurse - the pressure, the responsibility, the desire to do everything right, and the weight of leaving at the end of a shift wondering whether enough had been done.

She describes herself as “the nurse that never went home on time,” the one who stayed late because she wanted to make sure she had done everything she could for her patients before leaving. She recognizes now that consistently staying late can lead to burnout, but she also remembers the emotional reality behind it: wanting to give patients the care they deserved and feeling personally responsible for getting it right.

Stacey keeps those memories at the forefront of her mind today. When Stacey meets new nurses, she tells them it is normal to feel overwhelmed, and she wants them to know that the organization is there to help them through it. She sees mitigating that as a part of her role and job as the CNO.

I tell new nurses, “You’re going to feel overwhelmed, but we’re here to help you, and we want to know when you feel like that.”

Staying present in her lived experience She is speaking as someone who remembers the exhaustion, the pride, the pressure, and the vulnerability of being new to the profession.

“I’m really telling you how I feel,” she says.

For Stacey, that kind of openness creates space for others to be honest in return. If leaders allow room for real feelings and real concerns, staff are more likely to share what they need before issues become buried or turn into burnout. In that sense, transparency becomes more than a personal value. It becomes a practical leadership tool.

That belief also shaped how Stacey entered her role at Montefiore Nyack. Rather than beginning from a distance, she put on scrubs and spent time on every nursing unit, working alongside staff with a preceptor. She wanted to hear directly what was working, what was difficult, and what tools nurses felt they needed to do their jobs well.

“That’s the way I have to lead,” Stacey says. “I have to really know what’s going on. Keep my finger on the pulse.”

It is a simple statement, but it captures something central to her leadership style. Stacey does not believe executive leadership should mean separation from the work. She believes leaders have to stay close enough to understand how decisions feel on the ground.

Stacey and some of her leadership team

A People-First Leadership Philosophy

Stacey describes herself as a “people first, problem second” leader - a realization that came through leadership assessments and became especially clear when she compared her style with others in the executive setting. That orientation is not always the default in senior leadership. Many executives are trained, formally or informally, to identify the problem, choose the solution, and move quickly. Stacey understands the need for that kind of decisiveness, especially in urgent situations, but her instinct is to first ask how a solution will affect the people expected to carry it out.

“I tend to look at it like, ‘How is that going to impact all the different people?’” she says.

That question may seem simple, but it changes the way decisions are made. It forces leaders to consider not only whether a solution works on paper, but whether it is sustainable, fair, and clearly understood by the people closest to the work. It also reflects Stacey’s broader belief that staff perspective is not a secondary consideration; it is essential information.

At the same time, Stacey is careful not to frame people-first leadership as indecision. She knows leaders cannot seek consensus on everything, and she acknowledges that some moments require speed, direction, and firm decision-making. The key, she says, is adaptability.

“You have to be able to adapt,” Stacey explains. “You can’t always be a servant leader or a participatory leader. There are times when you have to be directive.”

That adaptability gives Stacey’s leadership philosophy its strength. She does not confuse kindness with passivity, or empathy with avoidance. In fact, she sees emotional intelligence as part of what allows leaders to be both compassionate and clear.

“I can still be nice and firm and fair,” she says. “It’s okay to weave kindness into whatever it is that you’re doing.”

For Stacey, kindness is not a lack of accountability. It is the manner in which accountability is delivered. Even when a difficult conversation is necessary, she believes leaders should seek to understand the “why” behind a behavior or challenge. That approach does not weaken the message; it makes the message more likely to be heard.

Leading Through Crisis

When asked about the most challenging moment of her career, Stacey does not hesitate: COVID-19.

At the time, she was serving in a senior leadership role at another hospital, helping guide staff through a period defined by fear, uncertainty, staffing strain, and profound loss. The operational demands were immense - opening beds, bringing on additional staff, responding to changing guidance, and making decisions with incomplete information. But for Stacey, the hardest part was knowing that no matter how much she did, it never felt like enough.

“You could never be present enough,” she says.

Any healthcare leader who worked through the pandemic remembers the impossibility of that time. Stacey wanted to be physically present with staff, checking on them and supporting them emotionally. At the same time, she was needed in operational conversations where decisions had to be made quickly. Leadership required her to be everywhere at once, and no amount of presence felt sufficient for the scale of what teams were experiencing.

Her highest priority was staff safety. Stacey remembers being honest with staff about what was known and what was still uncertain

“I didn’t even know what I was saying was 100% true,” she says. “I was clear with that - this is what I’m told, this is what I believe is happening right now.”

In one early moment, as concern about exposure and PPE intensified, Stacey pushed for staff to be masked. “We have to put masks on them,” she remembers saying. “Otherwise, we’re just going to lose staff left and right.”

The decision reflected the same people-first lens that defines her leadership more broadly. During a crisis, Stacey could not always lead through consensus or lengthy deliberation. Problems had to be solved immediately. But even then, the question at the center remained human: How do we keep people safe?

The emotional toll on nurses was extraordinary. Stacey remembers telling them, “You are doing everything you can. It is enough.” But many could not feel that it was enough because they were losing so many patients. For people who entered nursing to heal, the scale of loss was devastating.

That experience reinforced for Stacey that leadership in crisis requires more than operational competence. It requires presence, honesty, and willingness to stand with people in moments when there are no perfect answers.

Integrity in Difficult Decisions

Stacey is candid about the moments in leadership that test one’s sense of self. She acknowledges that healthcare leaders do not always get to lead exactly the way they want. Regulatory pressures, financial realities, operational constraints, and organizational consensus can all shape decisions in ways that may not fully align with a leader’s instincts.

There were times, Stacey says, when she wondered whether she was the right person to lead through a decision she did not completely believe in. But even in those moments, she did not feel she had lost herself.

“I never felt like I was inauthentic or not being myself,” she says. “I always took the challenge like, this is what we have to do, and I’m going to do it in the best possible way that I can.” If she can communicate honestly with the people affected, acknowledge the difficulty, listen to their concerns, and help implement the decision in the most thoughtful way available, she can live with it.

“It might not be the best possible solution,” she says, “but do it in the best possible way.”

This is where Stacey’s leadership has real weight. It is easy to speak about values when decisions are easy. It is much harder to hold onto them when communicating something difficult, imperfect, or unpopular. For Stacey, the answer is not to distance herself from the discomfort, but to move closer to the people affected by it.

If she simply said, “This is what you have to do, go do it,” she says she would not feel good about it. “Then I feel like it’s not authentic, and I think it takes my integrity away.”

Mentorship, Conflict, and Self-Reflection

Stacey believes strongly in mentorship, but not as a box to check or a formal pairing without substance. For her, mentorship depends on trust, chemistry, and the ability to speak openly.

“You absolutely need a mentor,” she says.

But she is equally clear that the best mentors are often people you naturally connect with - leaders, colleagues, friends, or others who come to know you well enough to help you through difficult moments honestly.

“They have to really know you in order to mentor you,” Stacey says.

That kind of relationship has helped Stacey build resilience during hard moments. When she has struggled with a decision or leadership challenge, mentors have helped her regain perspective - not by giving generic advice, but by reminding her who she is, what she values, and how she showed up.

Her advice to women aspiring to healthcare leadership is similarly grounded and practical. First, she emphasizes that leaders cannot avoid conflict. In every workplace, she says, there will be challenges and difficult personalities. Her advice is to stop expecting those challenges to disappear and instead build the skills to navigate them, lean into them, and figure out how you can handle conflicts in a way that feels like you.

“You can’t avoid the problems,” Stacey says. “You have to face them head on.”

She also encourages emerging leaders to develop negotiation skills. “Life is a negotiation,” she says, and in leadership, negotiation is happening constantly - whether leaders recognize it or not. For women in particular, Stacey believes this skill can be critical, because assertiveness is often perceived differently depending on gender.

Rather than allowing that reality to discourage women, Stacey encourages preparation, self-reflection, and skill-building. She believes leaders should identify areas where they are less comfortable (such as conflict, negotiation, communication, or something else) and actively work to strengthen them.

That advice is rooted in her own experience. Stacey has learned to lead without abandoning who she is. “You have to be authentic always,” she says. “I don’t see authenticity as a weakness.”

In fact, that may be one of Stacey’s greatest strengths. She knows she may be perceived as “nice,” and she understands that people sometimes mistake niceness for softness. But Stacey rejects the idea that warmth and authority cannot coexist.

“I am nice,” she says. “But I can be firm and assertive, and I can still be nice. That’s okay.”

Supporting Women in Leadership

She also believes support must be individualized. Strong leaders helped Stacey grow by recognizing both her strengths and the areas where she needed development. They valued her perspective and used it as a strength, while also helping her stretch.

That same approach, she believes, can help organizations develop more women leaders: listen to what individuals need, recognize the value of different leadership styles, and create environments where women can speak candidly when something feels inequitable.

Stacey has tried not to make being a woman “a thing” in her career, as she puts it. But she is also honest that there were moments when she wondered whether an experience would have been different if she were a man. In those moments, she found it important to have candid conversations with leaders she trusted.

That is why choosing the right boss matters, especially as leaders move into more senior roles. Stacey believes women should seek leaders who respect them for who they are and are open to listening when something does not feel right.

Over time, Stacey says, she gained respect by being true to herself, staying grounded in her values, and holding on to her integrity.

Defining Success

At this stage of her career, Stacey defines success in deeply personal and practical terms.

“I really want to love what I’m doing,” she says. “And I do.”

But success is not only about personal fulfillment. For Stacey, it is also about impact: supporting staff in a way that enables them to provide the best possible care to patients. She wants to understand what nurses need, dig into the realities of the work, and help remove obstacles where she can.

That requires more than listening politely. It requires what Stacey describes as rolling up her sleeves, getting close to the issue, and making sure staff feel heard and respected. When that happens consistently, she believes it can shape the culture of the entire organization.

“I’m not afraid to tell the staff that I care about them,” she says, “because I do.”

That care extends beyond individual interactions. Stacey cares about the profession of nursing, the work nurses do, and the impact they have on patients and families. She wants staff to know they are important to her.

On difficult days, Stacey returns to that source of purpose. When she needs to reset, she gets out of her office and rounds with staff.

“The best thing that I do when I’m having a hard day is get out and round and talk to the staff,” she says.

Those interactions remind her why the work matters. Even when conversations are difficult, staff appreciate that she came to them, listened, and engaged directly. For Stacey, the most energizing part of the day is “interacting with the why you’re here,”  meaning the patients, families, and staff whose lives are affected by the work of healthcare leadership.

Connected to Patient Care

For Stacey, the one downside of leadership is that it has taken her farther from the patients than she expected.

“I do miss patient care,” she says.

That feeling reflects one of Stacey’s core beliefs: leaders make better decisions when they stay close to the work. She worries that when nurses move into roles far removed from the bedside, they can lose touch with what is actually happening on the units.

That concern is part of why she spent time in scrubs at Montefiore Nyack and why she continues to look for ways to remain connected with staff. When nurses on the units try to stop her from helping, telling her she does not need to walk a patient to the bathroom or change a bed, Stacey reminds them that she is a nurse too.

“I’m here because I want to do this,” she says. “I want you to know that I am a nurse like you.”

Becoming a CNO did not replace her identity as a nurse; it expanded the way she lives it. Her leadership remains grounded in the same profession, the same values, and the same commitment to care.

Looking Ahead: Nursing, Technology, and AI

As she looks toward the future of healthcare, Stacey is especially interested in the role technology and AI can play in improving the nursing work environment.

“AI is absolutely top of mind,” she says.

As someone who has worked in IT and appreciates the potential of technology, Stacey sees real opportunity to reduce the documentation and computer-related burden on nurses. She imagines a future where nurses can walk into a room, speak their assessment naturally, and have it documented accurately - a future she says is almost within reach.

But Stacey is not uncritical in her enthusiasm. She understands the concerns around AI and believes governance is essential. New tools must be implemented carefully, thoughtfully, and with nurses involved in decision-making from the beginning.

“I think we should lead the way,” she says of nursing’s role in adopting new technologies.

For Stacey, the promise of technology is not innovation for its own sake. It is whether the tool gives nurses time back, reduces burden, and allows them to focus more fully on patient care. She saw that firsthand when rolling out virtual nursing in a previous role, where support with admissions helped reduce workload for bedside staff.

“I’m excited about what technology can do to really improve the work environment for nurses,” she says.

That excitement is consistent with the rest of Stacey’s leadership philosophy. Whether she is talking about staffing, AI, mentorship, or culture, the question is always the same: Does this help the people doing the work provide better care?

Getting to Know Stacey

Outside of the hospital, the same qualities that define Stacey’s leadership - warmth, presence, and connection - show up in how she spends her time.

Stacey describes herself as someone who likes to “work hard, play hard.” For her, recharging means getting away, spending time with family, reading, being outdoors, and making space for the life she has built outside of work. She also tries to truly disconnect when she is on vacation, in part because she believes leaders need to model that behavior for their teams.

“You really need to disconnect,” she says.

Living near the beach helps. Stacey loves to walk, bike, spend time outside, and enjoy the summer months with family and friends. She has children, grandchildren, dogs she adores, and a renewed commitment to staying connected with the people who matter most.

“I love to be outside and go to the beach,” she says.

Even her lighthearted answers reveal something about who she is. If she were not in healthcare, Stacey says she would likely be doing something in finance “in some way, shape, or form,” a nod to her longtime love of numbers and operations. It is easy to see how that part of her background complements her current role: she brings both financial fluency and deep clinical empathy to executive decision-making.

Her favorite movie is The Intern, the Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway film about reinvention, mentorship, and an unexpected intergenerational friendship. Stacey says it would have to be a comedy if she could watch only one thing forever, and The Intern is a favorite she returns to repeatedly.

“I absolutely love that movie,” she says. “I watch it over and over again.”

What an apt choice - at its heart, The Intern is about leadership, humility, learning from others, and the idea that experience and kindness still matter. Those themes echo Stacey’s own career as a second-career nurse who found her way into leadership through openness, encouragement, and meaningful relationships.

And when asked what animal she would come back as, Stacey answers without hesitation: “A golden retriever.”

Such a fitting answer!  Golden retrievers are known for loyalty, warmth, steadiness, and an almost effortless positivity. Stacey laughs that dogs “have it so good,” but for us, it perfectly sums up so many of the themes of our conversation.

Final Thoughts

Stacey Conklin’s leadership journey is a reminder that leadership is most powerful when it is real enough for others to recognize themselves in it.

The more women we see in leadership who are honest about the full reality of the work - the uncertainty, the difficult decisions, the moments of self-doubt, the family responsibilities, the hard days, the need to disconnect, and the joy that still exists outside the office - the more leadership becomes something other women can imagine for themselves.

Stacey models a kind of leadership that does not ask women to become less human in order to become more successful. She shows that warmth can coexist with authority, that kindness can coexist with firmness, and that a full life outside of work can deepen a leader’s perspective.

In healthcare especially, where the work is deeply personal and often emotionally demanding, that kind of example is powerful. When women leaders are willing to be open about what leadership really requires and what sustains them through it, they create a more honest path for the next generation to follow.

Stacey’s advice to women in healthcare is simple, but it carries the full weight of her experience: “Always be authentic,” she says, “and always make sure that you are striving to have a positive impact.”

For Stacey, that is both a leadership philosophy and a measure of success. Know who you are. Know what impact means to you. Then build a career, and a life, that allows you to live both.