Nursing Leadership Structure & Support

In the fast-paced and ever-changing healthcare industry, Tampa General Hospital has distinguished itself as a leading academic health system. In delivering patient care, we hold ourselves to rigorous standards and continually raise the bar as we pursue the journey toward world-class patient care. For these reasons and others, we have received the prestigious Magnet® designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which is the highest national honor that can be achieved in the practice of professional nursing. We are proud to be recognized for nursing excellence, which is a direct testament to our nursing leadership.

At TGH, leadership is more than a title; it is also a behavior. Our esteemed nursing leaders lead by example and become more effective through daily practice. With the Magnet® Transformational Leadership tenets as their foundation and guide, they establish interdisciplinary partnerships, foster professional rapport and facilitate effective communication throughout our organization. They also support, encourage, motivate and inspire our nurses every day, helping them to do their best work, pursue their career goals and develop both professionally and personally. Transformational thinking is at the core of all they do, with the goal of propelling the organization and the nursing profession into the future.

The essential qualities of an effective nursing leader

In the field of professional nursing, effective leadership is both a science and an art. Therefore, a nursing leader must cultivate certain skills and attributes from both the scientific and artistic disciplines, which can be acquired and developed through education, experience and mentorship. Significantly, the nursing leaders at TGH know how (and when) to lead, follow and delegate. They are also:

Effective communicators
Critical thinkers
Flexible and adaptable
Creative and innovative
Trustworthy and dependable
Professional and respectful
Compassionate and empathetic
Dedicated to excellence

In addition, nursing leaders employ the AKTiVe Leadership Model . This enables them to perform as effectively as possible in their roles while embodying the four cornerstone qualities of the AKTiVe model: Authenticity, Kindness, Transparency and Vulnerability.

In an environment of nursing excellence, all nurses are leaders. Therefore, the nursing leaders at TGH provide our nurses with the authority to make decisions and the autonomy to act in accordance with their professional knowledge.

TGH Nursing Leadership

	Wendi Goodson-Celerin, DNP, APRN, NE-BC Executive Vice President, Chief Nursing Executive Wendi Goodson-Celerin is the Executive Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), a nationally renowned nonprofit academic health system. Goodson-Celerin is responsible for leading nursing services across TGH with a focus on further developing cross-functional collaboration among nursing teams across hospital departments. Goodson-Celerin joined TGH in 1988 as a clinical nurse and has served many roles over the past three decades, including SVP and Interim Chief Nursing Officer; Vice President of Patient Services; Vice President of Neuroscience, Orthopaedics and Clinical Education; Director of Acute Surgical Inpatient, Critical Care and Clinical Education; Director of Women’s & Children’s Services and Clinical Education; Director of Nursing Education; and Clinical Nurse Manager. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice and both her Master and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of South Florida. Goodson-Celerin has been recognized with several industry honors, including the Excellence in Management Leadership Award (2004), the Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award (2009) and the Excellence in Education Award from the Florida Organization of Nurse Executives (2014). Goodson-Celerin earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in nursing at the University of South Florida. She holds a doctorate in nursing practice and is certified with the ANCC Nurse Executive Board.
	Kate Ulrich, MS, BSN, RN, NEA-BC Sr. Vice President, Surgical Services Kate Ulrich is the Senior Vice President of Surgical Services at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), a nationally renowned nonprofit academic health system. Kate brings nearly 30 years of nursing experience to Tampa General, previously leading Perioperative Services for Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, and most recently Duke University Health System in North Carolina. Her scope of responsibility includes oversight of Surgical Services to include ambulatory sites, procedural areas, and the Sterile Processing Department. Prior to joining Tampa General, Kate served as the Assistant Vice President of Nursing Perioperative Services at Duke University Health. Her responsibilities included clinical, professional, and regulatory standards within Perioperative Services while ensuring services always met the needs of patients, personnel, and medical staff. Additionally, she was also responsible for exercising clinical leadership and management for all functions within Perioperative Services, which included 106 surgical and procedural rooms. This program supported services across eight surgical platforms. Nurse Executive Advanced-Board Certified, Kate earned her Master of Science in Nursing from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. She is a national speaker of best practices in perioperative services and has participated in speaking engagements at AORN Global Surgical and other prominent health care conferences throughout her career.
	Michele Moran, MBA, MSN, RN Vice President, Emergency Services Michele is the Vice President for Emergency Services to include Davis Island Emergency Department (ED), TGH Brandon and Kennedy Free Standing EDs, Trauma Services, and the Aeromed Ground and Flight Transport Program. Michele has a robust background with 20+ years of experience in the field of Nursing and Executive Leadership and has demonstrated her versatility by overseeing multiple disciplines throughout her career. She joined the Tampa General Hospital team four years ago, has an unwavering focus on quality and safety of the patients we serve, and a ton of passion centered around her teams, making their growth and success a top priority. Michele holds five post-graduate degrees to include a Master of Science in Nursing, Executive Track, and a Master of Business Administration.
	Yuri Mykoo, MBA, MSN, FACHE Vice President, Patient Services Yuri Mykoo is the Vice President of Patient Services responsible for all adult in-patient nursing units at TGH main campus. Previously, Yuri was the Systems Administrative Director of Medical, Surgical, and Inpatient rehabilitative services at Naples Community Hospital. In this role, he was responsible for 500 inpatient beds and 900 FTEs across two hospital campuses. Yuri brings with him an extensive 35-year health care career, with the last 17 of those years being dedicated to healthcare leadership. Yuri has held a multitude of leadership roles throughout his career, starting as a manager of a Cardiovascular ICU. From there, he has held several director roles including Critical Care, Medical Surgical, Surgical Services, and Emergency Services. Yuri holds a master’s in business administration, a bachelor’s in nursing, and is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
	Adam Fletcher Sr. Director, Nursing Operations Adam is the Senior Director of Nursing Operations at Tampa General Hospital. In this role, Adam is responsible for the oversight and coordination of operational excellence throughout the nursing division. He also has oversight over the Respiratory therapy team, Central Monitoring Unit, and virtual care team. Adam has been with TGH since 2020 and brings with him over a decade of leadership experience from various healthcare organizations. He has been a registered nurse for 17 years, with a clinical background in critical care, emergency services, and invasive cardiology. He holds both a Master of Healthcare Administration and a Bachelor’s in Nursing from Ohio University and is actively pursuing his Doctorate in Nursing Practice. Adam also holds a Board-Certified Nurse Executive certification from the American Nurse Credentialing Center.
	Nikki Hurley, MSN, RN, NE-BC Sr. Director, Patient Services Women's Institute & Muma Children's Hospital at TGH Nikki joined TGH as the Director of Patient Care of Women and Children's Service Lines in January of 2021. Nikki is accountable for the operations of multiple lines of service to include Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Pediatric Medical Surgical Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Transport, Newborn Services, Pediatric Day Hospital, Pediatric Dialysis, Ante/Post-Partum, Mother Baby Unit, Labor and Delivery including triage and 4 operating rooms, Newborn Hearing Screening, Childbirth Education, and Birth Registrars. Over the last several years the Women's Institute and the Muma Children's Hospital at TGH have grown significantly in volume with a record-breaking number of deliveries and inpatient admissions. Nikki supports the nursing division as a leadership sponsor for the UCSR council as well as serving on workgroups focused on drug diversion, eVideon governance, and nursing peer review. She is an AKTiVe mentor, Lead TGH mentor, and serves as co-lead on the Magnet writing team for Structural Empowerment. Under Nikki’s leadership, TGH was recognized by the March of Dimes as #1 Corporate Sponsor and received the “GOAT” award for all around participation and contributions to the 2022 March for Babies. Most recently prior to joining TGH Nikki worked at Johns Hopkins All Children’s serving in roles in the Emergency Department, Cardiovascular ICU, and Ambulatory Services. Nikki has over 23 years of nursing experience with progressive leadership positions in inpatient, ambulatory, and emergency room settings. She earned her master’s degree in Nursing Administration in 2016 from Norwich University and her BSN from York College of Pennsylvania in 1999. In addition, she is an ANCC board certified Nurse Executive (NE-BC).
	Ronetta Lambert, MHA, BSN, RN Sr. Director, CareComm Operations Ronetta is the Sr. Director of CareComm Operations at Tampa General Hospital (TGH). In her role, Ronetta works with leaders across the organization in our Length of Stay initiatives, service-line growth and our Master Facility Plan to expand hospital capacity and improve patient throughput efficiencies. After joining Tampa General Hospital as a Nurse Manager in 2014, Ronetta quickly emerged as a leader. Her ability to work across departments to spearhead innovative processes and improve patient safety and quality outcomes led to her promotion to Director of Inpatient Medicine in 2015. Ronetta’s scope continued to grow as she served as nurse lead for our Inpatient Hospice unit, oversaw our Behavioral Psych Nurse Department, Diabetes Nurse Specialists and various initiatives to improve medicine length of stay alongside our providers and Case Management teams. In 2018, Ronetta served as one of the leads in the development of our CareComm Command Center and assisted with the development of the Departure Lounge, which now serves approximately 100-115 patients per day, and has led to an improvement in our median discharge time of day by 30 minutes prior to CareComm opening. Ronetta’s unique ability to recognize and mitigate bottlenecks and inefficiencies with patient throughput and care progression has been instrumental in the ongoing work with our interdisciplinary teams to leverage the technology of our CareComm Command Center to drive hospital efficiency. Ronetta partnered with the multidisciplinary leaders to develop TGH’s Capacity Management plan to define capacity constraints and design pressure indicators regarding capacity. Ronetta also led our team in the rollout of our Zero Harm Safety Huddles, which continue to play an instrumental role in proactively addressing safety concerns with leadership. Prior to joining TGH, Ronetta worked at the University of Maryland Medical Center as a Nurse Manager in Cardiac Telemetry and Vascular Surgery Stepdown unit. She also served as the nurse lead when the medical center transitioned to EMR. Ronetta earned her master’s degree in Health Care Administration from the University of Maryland College Park in 2009 received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Hampton University, located in Hampton, Va., in 1996.
	Yessenia Salgado Sr. Director, Clinical Operations, Surgical Services Yessenia V. Salgado is the Senior Director of Clinical Operations for Surgical Services at Tampa General Hospital (TGH), with over 20 years of nursing experience. She began her career at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in 2002. After completing her graduate degree, she served as Clinical Program Manager of Patient Safety and TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer at Mount Sinai Hospital, leading program initiatives and ensuring clinical quality compliance. Dr. Salgado joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in 2010 and again in 2016, where she ultimately assumed leadership as the Director of Perioperative Nursing for the 1275 Main Campus. Before TGH, her roles included clinical construction perioperative lead for MSK’s Pavilion Tower, EPIC lead for the Perioperative Nexus Workgroup, and participation in interdisciplinary projects with Operational Excellence. Dr. Salgado holds an Associate Degree in Nursing from Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing Leadership from Regis University, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Villanova University. She is dual-certified as a Nurse Executive (NE-BC) and perioperative registered nurse (CNOR). Her publications focus on team training in the perioperative arena, and she has presented nationally with the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses Congress (AORN) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). Dr. Salgado is committed to advocating for safe, quality care in perioperative nursing and surgical services. In alignment with this commitment, her work has been disseminated in the American Journal of Medical Quality, AORN, OR Excellence, and Outpatient Surgery magazines, and her webinar was featured and promoted with AORN on clinical peer support programs.
	Candace Amato, MBA-HM, MSN, RN Director, Patient Services Medical Critical Care Candace is the Director of Patient Services for Critical Care Medicine and Oncology, at Tampa General Hospital. She also has oversight of the Significant Developmental and Physical Disability program. Candace has almost 30 years of nursing experience with a background in critical care. She first joined TGH in 1998. Candace progressed from a clinical bedside nurse to a clinician and nurse manager, before transitioning into her current role as Director. Candace has a master’s in business administration, a bachelor’s in nursing science, and holds multiple advanced certifications that include Certified Critical Care RN (CCRN,) Certified Nurse Manager and Leader (CNML) and she is Certified in Executive Nurse Practice (CENP).
	Cherilyn Ashlock Director, Nursing Excellence and Magnet Programs Cherilyn is the Director of Nursing Excellence and Magnet Programs at Tampa General Hospital (TGH). She brings over 23 years of nursing experience to her role including nursing leadership, clinical education and nursing research, patient safety and quality, high-reliability consulting, and Magnet experience. Before transitioning to nursing leadership early in her career, she worked at the clinical bedside caring for critically ill children and their families in both the pediatric emergency department and pediatric intensive care unit. Cherilyn received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Georgia Baptist College, her Master of Science Nursing - Education from California State University and her Doctorate of Nursing Practice – Nurse Executive from Old Dominion University. She is an ANCC board certified Nurse Executive and is passionate about professional nursing practice and the essential role that nurses play in safely shepherding patients through the complexity of the healthcare system.
	Horacio Figueroa, MSN, RN, NE-BC Director, Patient Services Medical Acute Care Horacio is the Director of Patient Services, Medical Acute Care, at Tampa General Hospital (TGH). In his role, he supports six acute care medicine floors as well as the ER holds, the Rapid Response Team, and the Clinical Resource Team. Horacio has worked in several positions at TGH. He started as a PCT back in 2002 and in 2003 he obtained his nursing degree and worked as a bedside RN. He later became a clinician in our Emergency Department. In 2010, Horacio became the Lead Clinical Administrative Supervisor and eventually assumed the Nurse Manager role on our Acute Care of the Elderly Unit. He then served as the Nurse Manager for our Vascular ICU. Most recently, he was the Assistant Director of Clinical Resources. He has many accomplishments in these roles such as obtaining exemplary status and NICHE Accreditation, opening a 34-bed Vascular Surgery Unit, leading, and redesigning our CRRT Program, our Clinical Resource Team and the Rapid Response Team. In addition, Horacio is a known and respected leader for his ability to obtain consistent quality improvement metrics, enhanced team member engagement and retention.
	Shanie Fletcher Director, Patient Services Heart & Vascular Division Shanie is the Director of Patient Services for the Heart and Vascular Division. She has been with TGH since 2020, where she serves as the Manager of 5A1 Stepdown. In this role, she has driven significant improvements in quality outcomes, patient experience, and team member engagement. Shanie brings with her more than ten years of clinical experience, and more than five years of leadership experience across multiple organizations. She holds an associate degree in nursing from Edison Community College, a BSN and MSN from Western Governors University, and is an AACN certified RN. She is an enthusiastic leader who is patient-focused and quality driven.
	Melisa Hayman, DNP, MHA, RN-BC, NE-BC Director, Patient Services Muma Children's Hospital at TGH Melisa is the Director of Patient Services for the Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH. Melisa has been a nurse almost 30 years and has been with TGH since 2005. Her clinical background is orthopedic med surg, telemetry and adult and Neonatal ICU. Melisa has been a clinical educator, informatics, nurse, and Magnet Program Director for TGH. Her current scope is over the Muma Children’s Hospital at TGH which includes the Neonatal ICU, pediatric med surg, Pediatric ICU, Pediatric ED, Pediatric Dialysis, Pediatric Day Hospital, Pediatric Rehab and Child Life. Melisa has always been a life-long learner completing a Bachelors in Nursing from the University of South Florida in 1996, a dual Masters in Nursing and Health Administration in 2010 from the University of Phoenix, and a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the University of Central Florida in 2022. Melisa is an active member in the TGH community and sits on multiple advisory committees. She is double ANCC board certified in the specialties of Nurse Executive and Nursing Informatics. Melisa is a graduate and active alumni of our own Lead TGH Program.
	Sylvia Helms, MSN, RN, MCCT Director, Clinical Education Sylvia is the Director of Patient Services, Clinical Education, at Tampa General Hospital (TGH). Sylvia graduated from Florida A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in Nursing and continued her education at University of South Florida where she completed her master’s degree in nursing, specializing in the Clinical Nurse Leader role in 2006. In her new role, Sylvia supports Clinical Education, the Acute & Critical Care Rotation Programs, and Patient Care Assistant program. She started her nursing career at TGH as a traveler on the Ortho-Trauma unit in 2001 and progressed to joining the TGH team in 2002 as a clinician in the Short Stay Center. Since that time, she has progressively challenged herself in the roles of clinician, nurse specialist, and nurse manager of the Trauma Surgery Unit (8C). Among her many accomplishments, Sylvia successfully lead her team's and the organization’s response to COVID by guiding the team through training for the Team Nursing Model, RN Surge and Supplemental training, education of inpatient units transitioning to COVID, and lead a Step-Down Unit redesign to care for higher acuity patients. Sylvia has also served as co-chair for the Florida Organization of Nurse Executives (FONE) education committee 2019 – 2021.
	Amanda Holbrook, MSN, RN, RNC-OB, C-EFM Director, Patient Services Women's Institute Amanda began her role as the Director of Patient Care Services for the TGH Women's Institute in 2023. She brings 16 years of nursing experience and 10 years as a director of nursing. Her career began and was established in high-risk OB, but Amanda also has leadership experience in Med/Surg, inpatient mental health care, and Cardiac units. Amanda has previously served as the AWHONN state president for New Mexico. One of Amanda’s proudest professional accomplishments was her work throughout the state of New Mexico establishing standards for how emergency rooms and aeromed can stabilize obstetric emergencies prior to transporting to a trauma center. Her scope of services at TGH include Labor and Delivery, Transition Nursery, Ante/Post Partum, Mother/Baby, and Women’s Institute Support services.
	Tracey Lund Director, Patient Services Neuroscience, Neurodiagnostics, Observation and the Adult Hold Units Tracey is the Director of Patient Services for the Neuroscience, Neurodiagnostics, Observation and the Adult Hold Units. She has over 30 years of nursing expertise with 20 years of nursing leadership. She is a proven leader that has driven significant improvements in quality, patient experience, and team member engagement. She holds a BSN from the University of South Florida and MSN in Leadership from Western Governors University. She holds two national certifications, CCRN and CNRN. She is a dedicated leader who has served and led many quality initiatives in her tenure.
	Jennifer Potesta Director, Patient Services Trauma, Transplant, Burn, and Adult Dialysis and Apheresis Unit Jennifer is the Director of Patient Services for the Trauma, Transplant, Burn, and Adult Dialysis and Apheresis Unit. Jennifer’s clinical career began in 1996 in a variety of healthcare organizations with the past 8 years as a nurse leader. She joined Tampa General Hospital in January 2019 as the Cardiovascular Nurse Manager. Since joining the organization, she advanced the level of care within the unit, and improved team engagement and nursing quality. Jennifer holds her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Waynesburg University and a master’s degree in business from Indiana University as well as a national CVRN certification. Before beginning her nursing career, Jennifer served 4 years in the United States Air Force. Jennifer’s passion is caring for nurses through leadership support, personal and professional development, and fostering healthy work environments. Her leadership philosophy is to lead by example to inspire others.