Mary Ann Fuchs, RN

Mary Ann Fuchs, MSN, RN, has 23 years of experience as a registered nurse in various roles. Beginning in bedside clinical care, she has served as an assistant nurse manager, nurse manager of the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant program, director of Oncology Nursing and Services, associate operating officer for Oncology Services, and nursing director of Duke University Hospital (DUH).

She currently holds the positions of chief nursing and patient care services officer for both DUH and Duke University Health System (DUHS), with responsibility for the oversight and operational management of multiple patient services. She leads DUHS Friends of Nursing -- a philanthropic program that provides resources for nurses’ ongoing development and supports annual excellence award stipends.

She is also a clinical associate in the Duke University School of Nursing. With oversight of nearly 5,800 nurses system-wide, her nursing role focus is centered on professional practice, nursing governance model development, nursing workforce planning, and program development to enhance the retention and recruitment of nurses.

Fuchs currently serves on 20 DUH and DUHS committees and steering committees, including Executive Management, Diversity Leadership, Workers Compensation, Work Culture Executive, and System Alignment.

Her recent major accomplishments include development of the DUHS system-wide model for nursing excellence, and development and implementation of the DUHS nursing strategic plan. She is a Johnson and Johnson-sponsored Wharton School of Management Fellow in nursing management and a Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Executive Nurse Fellow (cohort year 2002). Using RWJ leadership grant funds, she directed development and implementation of the Logrando el Ejercicio de la Enfermeria (LEE), a program designed to help nurses trained in their Spanish-speaking countries of origin find employment in the United States. She currently serves as a nurse administrator representative on the North Carolina Board of Nursing.

In 1996 Fuchs was awarded the Oncology Nursing Foundation’s Nurse Administrator Career Development Award, and has served as the president, president-elect, and secretary of the North Carolina Triangle Chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society. She has also served as a delegation member in the Citizen’s Ambassador Program-South Africa, and as a special program consultant for Duke/RTI collaboration in Kuwait. She is in Who’s Who of American Graduate Students, and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the Oncology Nursing Society, the American Nurses Association, the North Carolina Nurses Association, and the Health Care Management Academy.