Brenda Nevidjon, MSN, RN, FAAN, is Chief Executive Officer of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and its affiliated corporations, the Oncology Nursing Foundation (ONF) and the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation (ONCC). She is also Clinical Professor Emeritus at the Duke University School of Nursing. As a revered nursing forerunner, she is recognized globally for her leadership in professional and non-profit organizations, ability to improve nursing practice, advocacy for policies that promote health equity and access to care, and the promotion of nurse excellence.

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Ms. Nevidjon’s pioneering career includes developing and managing the first dedicated oncology unit at Duke Hospital, forging the clinical nurse specialist role at the Cancer Control Agency of British Columbia, and serving as the first service line manager at Providence Medical Center in Seattle. She was also the first nurse and first woman to be named Chief Operating Officer of Duke University Hospital and, in this role, co-developed its service line model, and co-led the initiative to integrate two community hospitals into the Duke University Health System. She has educated, coached, and mentored innumerable nurses and health care professionals who have extended her influence globally.

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Throughout her career, Ms. Nevidjon has demonstrated her commitment to scholarship and successfully encouraged others, especially nurses in the practice setting, to share their knowledge and expertise through publication and presentation. She is a frequent speaker with more than 200 presentations nationally and internationally including keynote and named lectureships. Her publication record includes editor of four books, author or co-author of 21 book chapters, over 50 journal articles, and more than 140 editorials.

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Ms. Nevidjon’s volunteer service is extensive within ONS and other organizations. She served as the president of ONS and ONF, which awarded more than $33 million in support of awards, grants, and scholarships under her stewardship. She served on the National Cancer Policy Forum of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) where she co-chaired three workshops. She was also a member of the NASEM Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness. Ms. Nevidjon supported the Cancer Moonshot initiative led by then Vice-President Biden, serving on the Biden Foundation’s Moonshot Patient Navigation Task Force, and helped ensure that nurses were on the Blue-Ribbon Panel, work groups, and Biden’s cancer center visits.

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Ms. Nevidjon earned her BSN from the Duke University School of Nursing, her MSN in psychiatric nursing from the University of North Carolina School of Nursing and took doctoral courses at the Fielding Graduate Institute and Duke School of Nursing. She attended the Wharton Fellows Program in Management for Nurse Executives and was in the inaugural class of the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program. Ms. Nevidjon was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2004.