K. Kelly Hancock DNP, RN, NE-BC, FAAN
Director
K. Kelly Hancock is a high-performing and respected executive leader with a 30-year career history of influencing transformational change in the global healthcare environment. An innovative and visionary strategist, Dr. Hancock is known for developing, organizing, leading and motivating high-functioning, collaborative and diverse global teams, including a 24,000-member nursing team and an 81,000-member caregiver team of teams. She assumed her first formal leader role in 1997 and has served in executive leadership positions with a global influence for 15 years.
Dr. Hancock’s competencies, capabilities and steadfast leadership have led her to where she is today — Executive Vice President and Chief Caregiver Officer (CCO) and holder of the Rich Family Chief Caregiver Chair for the internationally renowned Cleveland Clinic health system, which encompasses a 173-acre main campus, 23 hospitals and 276 outpatient facilities throughout northeast Ohio, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, Toronto, Canada, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and London, England. Responsible for the oversight of 81,000 U.S. and international employees, she is focused on aligning all aspects of caregiver engagement and ensuring a unified approach to employee needs and workforce experience to enable superior patient care delivery across the globe. She has worked to define and build an organizational structure that supports an inclusive strategy to serve all global employees, with opportunities to excel, in a culture where caregivers are valued. Every day, she helps Cleveland Clinic achieve its vision to become the best place to work and receive care.
With a prominent role on Cleveland Clinic’s executive leadership team, she is an ex-officio member of the Board of Governors, an elected member of Cleveland Clinic London’s Board of Directors, and a Board of Directors member for Ashtabula Regional Medical Center (a Cleveland Clinic-affiliate) and numerous Cleveland Clinic subsidiaries. Dr. Hancock has been attending health system board meetings for more than a decade, strategically partnering with fellow executives and stakeholders to continuously reinforce Cleveland Clinic’s culture, vision and values, drive strategic direction, establish and measure operational and performance standards, and set and achieve organizational goals. She advises in leadership, coaching, employee relations, talent acquisition, organizational design and change, performance management and more. She actively participates in the appointment and promotion of professional staff members, as well as the annual recommendation of staff for election to the boards of directors and trustees and serves on the nominating committee for institute chairs and other executive positions.
Dr. Hancock extends her advisory services to professional organizations and industry associations. She serves on numerous non-profit boards, including the Frances Payne Bolton Chief Nursing Officer Advisory Board of Case Western Reserve University, Kent State University College of Nursing Advisory Board, Ursuline College Breen School of Nursing Community Advisory Board and Hill-Rom Chief Nurse Executive Advisory Board. She sits on the Board of Directors for College Now Greater Cleveland, Keep Memory Alive and In Counsel with Women, and is a member of the Cleveland Leadership Center Board of Trustees. She is the Vice Chair of the Northeast Ohio Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Immediate Past President of the Greater Cleveland Division of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Hancock was named Cleveland Clinic’s first-ever CCO in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was approached by Cleveland Clinic’s highly regarded and influential executives to fulfill the first-of-its-kind role. At the time, she was entering her ninth year as Executive Chief Nursing Officer (ECNO) for the health system and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Cleveland Clinic main campus, a dual position in which she excelled. For nearly a decade, she led the strategic direction of the 24,000-member nursing team, overseeing nursing practice, development and education in inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitation and home care fields. Spearheading the largest caregiver group, she had a substantive, sustained local, national and international impact in nursing services, which transcended throughout all levels of the organization. Through her leadership, Cleveland Clinic became positioned as the world leader in nursing excellence.
Dr. Hancock began her career at Cleveland Clinic in 1993 as a nurse associate, a student nurse role that provided the foundation for her journey. She spent three years as a staff nurse before becoming clinical coordinator for two cardiothoracic step-down units. By 1999, she was named nurse manager for both units. From 2004 to 2011, she led nursing practice as director and senior director for the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute, which ranks number one in cardiac care by U.S. News and World Report. In November 2011, she was appointed main campus CNO and just 10 months later, she was named the health system ECNO, while also maintaining her CNO position.
Throughout her tenured career, Dr. Hancock has received many awards and honors. Her most recent accolades include the 2023 Saint Joseph Academy Medaille Award Honoree, 2022 Smart Business Smart Women Progressive Woman Award Honoree, 2020 LinkedIn Top Voices in Frontline Healthcare, 2020 and 2019 50+ Hospital and Health System CNOs to Know, and 2018 Crain’s Cleveland Business Notable Woman in Healthcare.
Dr. Hancock holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Chamberlain College of Nursing, and a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from the Breen School of Nursing at Ursuline College. She is a board-certified Nurse Executive (NE-BC) through the American Nurses Credentialing Center and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, American Nurses Association, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Greater Cleveland Organization for Nursing Leadership, The 50 Club of Cleveland and Vizient Large System Nurse Executives Network.