As a not-for-profit community healthcare system, UNC Health Blue Ridge provides advanced healthcare and wellness services from more than 35 locations across a three-county region of Western North Carolina. Pohl brings more than 30 years of clinical healthcare experience and over 25 years of nursing leadership to her new role.

Since 2011, she has served as the CNO of Lima Memorial Health System, a 328-bed hospital system in northwest Ohio with 1,700 employees and 200 providers, serving a 10-county area.

Pohl said her earning her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Quinnipiac equipped her with attributes and skills which are threaded into the fabric of her nursing leadership abilities.

“One of the main reasons I chose Quinnipiac was because of its holistic approach to nursing,” said Pohl.  “One of my biggest takeaways has been shared governance for our nursing staff — having them be engaged in making nursing practice changes.”

At Lima Memorial, Pohl has built a robust shared governance council.

“Nursing is the largest portion of it, but we don’t just call it a nursing practice council. We call it a professional practice council. We invite different entities because we don’t operate in a silo. Anything that we’re doing has to rely on the other departments as well. I think that’s been a big part of the council’s success,” Pohl said.  

At Quinnipiac, Pohl’s DNP project was based on Emotional Harm, a newer industry concept at the time. Pohl collaborated with peers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and with Indiana-based healthcare company Press Ganey to bring her Quinnipiac DNP project to her hospital, Lima Memorial.

“It is now embedded in that organization, from patient physical harm to patient emotional harm to employee physical harm to employee emotional harm,” said Pohl. “I really feel like I’m leaving a stamp with the organization, and Quinnipiac has a stamp there too, because of that project and that program. I feel very good about what I’ve accomplished, and I’m hoping to bring the same thing to the new organization.”

Pohl said her Quinnipiac DNP program experience was especially memorable for its exchange of information and ideas with the faculty and the students.

“The faculty was very open to how we approached the projects, and the assistance, feedback and interaction that we got demonstrated to me the value of discussing things in a shared way, and coming to a common solution,” said Pohl.

Originally from Maryland, Pohl’s family relocated to the St. Mary’s, Ohio, area, where she began her healthcare career as a respiratory therapist before transitioning into nursing. She is looking forward to relocating to North Carolina, where she has family in the Pinehurst area. Pohl is married and has three adult daughters.

Pohl said she is excited and inspired to be a member of a profession which requires continued growth and knowledge.

“Nursing has evolved tremendously over 30 years, and I love the idea of listening to all of the latest and greatest things, even with technology and AI coming in,” Pohl said. “Having been in the profession for so long, I feel it would be a detriment not to be open to all the new technologies that are available. There are things that didn’t seem possible 30 years ago, and now we are looking at ways to incorporate pieces of it to augment and support our nursing care.”