For Jennifer Kennedy, the birth of her oldest son defined not only her family life, but also her career. More than 30 years ago, Kennedy’s postpartum nurse made a lasting impression that changed the course of her life forever. She still vividly remembers being drawn to the nurse’s beautiful strawberry blonde hair, kindness and gentle bedside manner.
Kennedy said to the young woman, “I envy you. I always wanted to be a nurse.”
Her response still echoes in Kennedy’s mind: “What’s stopping you?”
Less than six months after that exchange, Kennedy was enrolled at Suffolk Community College working toward a degree in nursing. She jokes that with the birth of each of her three children, she earned another degree. By the time her youngest son was born, she was working toward a master’s and spending her days as a trauma nurse.
Kennedy’s empathy Is fitting for a nurse. But it’s as an executive leader in the healthcare field that she has found her true calling. A highly regarded clinical expert with a deep understanding of care issues, she is known to colleagues as a creative change agent committed to patient-centered models — and wholeheartedly supportive of her team.
She’s fun, too. Kennedy often has her staff dress up and role-play at team meetings, and tends to develop strong friendships with co-workers.
“Jen is somebody who empowers her team to be creative and to imagine healthcare from multiple perspectives. And most of all, she challenges us,” says Mary Jean McKeveny, director of clinical innovation at Gurwin. “Forget about thinking outside the box. She threw out the box a long time ago.”
If recent COVID-related challenges and heartache in the long-term care field have taught anything, it is what real leadership looks like and what’s required to innovate. Kennedy has driven meaningful change throughout it all.
Whether she’s turning the admissions process at Gurwin on its head, helping shepherd teams through interim leadership situations or simply adapting to new COVID protocols, she takes on change with passion.
She jokes that her love of skydiving taught her early on that risk is inherent in change. Her combined 22 dives from 10,000 feet above earth might just be the reason she welcomes challenges with wide-open arms.
She hasn’t skydived since she had her children and embarked on her nursing career, but she hopes to return to it soon. For now, she and her husband, James, are content to spend time on the ground with their grown children and two young granddaughters, Aubrey and Ella. They are a family that works hard and plays hard.
“We have salt water running through our veins,” Kennedy says. In the summer, they spend time on their boat, fishing in Long Island’s Peconic Bay and digging for clams with their toes.
One of her favorite activities these days is floating in the ocean and looking up at the sky.
Like the moment after pulling the ripcord in a skydive, she says, she floats in peace.
Resume: 1994, Earns associate degree in science from Suffolk Community College; 1994, Works as neurosurgery nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital; 1995-2010, Joins St. Johnland Nursing Home as care manager, moves to quality improvement and admissions as RN, later directs case management; 2005, Earns bachelor’s in nursing from Stony Brook; 2014-2016, Becomes director of integrated care and clinical operations at National Healthcare Associates; 2015, Earns master’s in healthcare management & policy; 2016-2017, Named director of care transition innovation at Suffolk Care Collaborative; 2017, Joins Gurwin as chief marketing officer; 2018, Becomes Gurwin’s VP of systems integration.
— NICOLE BOWMAN
