Carolyn Davidson, PhD, is Vice President, Patient Care Services, and Chief Nursing Quality and Patient Safety Officer for Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN). She has responsibility for quality improvement, quality assurance and evidence-based practice activities at LVHN. In this role, Davidson collaborates with nursing leadership across the health network to set the vision and plan for quality activities. Additionally, she works collaboratively with the respective chairpersons and chiefs of medical staff departments in meeting mutually established goals and objectives for patient care. She assures standards of care are maintained for all clinical and support areas, leading teams in the evaluation of current literature on relevant issues such as continued improvement of quality health care, reduction of errors, patient safety and national guidelines.

Davidson completed her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science at Widener University and holds a Master of Science in Nursing from West Texas A&M University. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from West Texas State University. She is board-certified as an Advanced Nurse Executive by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and is certified as Professional in Healthcare Quality. Davidson completed a Nursing Executive Fellowship with the GE Health Management Academy.

Prior to becoming Vice President, Davidson’s experience includes a broad range of nursing activities from bedside nursing in medical-surgical units, critical care units and critical access hospitals to managing a cardiac ICU and practicing as a family nurse practitioner in underserved areas. She served on the faculty for a community college and worked as a unit-based educator for the open-heart unit (OHU) and transitional open-heart unit (TOHU) at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest. She has presented orally at national conferences, been published several times and holds national and local memberships in professional nursing organizations.