Linda Groah selected as AORN's new executive director

AORN Journal, March, 2007

Linda K. Groah, RN, MSN, CNOR, CNAA, FAAN, an RN past President and a veteran perioperative nursing executive, has been named Executive Director/CEO of the Association, effective March 26, 2007. Groah wilt be responsible for the overall management and financial operations of AORN's for-profit and not-for-profit subsidiaries, the AORN Foundation, and Headquarters staff. She succeeds Ellen K. Murphy, RN, MS, JD, FAAN, who has served as AORN Interim Executive Director since July 2006.

Groah's entire career has been devoted to perioperative nursing practice, education, and executive management to AORN. She is a longtime member of the Association and has served on many committees and task forces over the years. She served as the AORN President from 1996 to 1997 and as president of the AORN Foundation from 1991 to 1996. She is a longtime contributor of articles to the AORN Journal, the Association's newsletters, and other publications.

Groah was chief operating officer of Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, Calif, until September 2006, when she retired from that position and took on the rote of health care consultant. Her previous professional positions include nurse executive for Kaiser Foundation Hospital-San Francisco and Kaiser Foundation Hospital-South San Francisco, Calif; director of nursing OR-PACU-Surgery Center at the University of California San Francisco Hospitals and Clinics; and OR director at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, Ga.

She currently holds positions as a visiting faculty member at San Francisco State University's Department of Nursing and as an assistant clinical professor in the University of California's San Francisco School of Nursing. Groah is an active member of several other organizations, including the Surgical Care Improvement Project (ie, SCIP); American College of Healthcare Executives; American Organization of Nurse Executives; American Nurses Association; Sigma Theta Tau; and the National League for Nursing.

Groah has influenced clinical and administrative nursing practices worldwide through her work in developing advanced clinical practice models for perioperative nursing as well as surgical services financial models that ensure quality health care for patients. Throughout her career, Groah has focused on improving patient safety. As a member of the President's Commission on Patient Safety and various AORN committees and task forces, she has been closely involved in the development of several safety resources and tool kits.

Groah received AORN's Award for Excellence in Perioperative Nursing in 1989 and was inducted in 2000 as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2005, she received Nursing Spectrum magazine's California and US Nursing Excellence Award for Leadership. Last year, she was named one of San Francisco's 100 most influential women in business.