Alumni Spotlight: Ron and Kathy Assaf College of Nursing – Deborah A. Tedder, M.B.A.

Deborah A. Tedder, M.B.A. (’00), M.S.N. (’09), is the chief nursing officer at Northwest Medical Center in Margate, Florida.

With 42 years of experience, Tedder has held nursing leadership positions at major health care systems, including Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, where she served as chief nursing officer. She also worked at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, before moving to Northwest Medical Center in 2016.

“Achieving an M.B.A. at NSU provided me with the financial and business knowledge to fiscally manage and oversee nursing,” said Tedder, whose early nursing career focused on medical-surgical intensive care. “Obtaining an M.S.N. degree-also at NSU-allowed me to combine nursing leadership knowledge with the business skills needed to successfully lead the nursing division of these major health care systems.”

In 2016, Tedder was elected to the Board of Nursing Consortium of South Florida. She serves on the boards at Mercy Hospital and Mercy Care Hospice and the advisory board at Florida Atlantic University. She belongs to the Florida Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, and South Florida Organization of Nurse Executives. Tedder is the 2017 recipient of the American Hospital Association (AHA) Patient Leaders Fellowship and the 2011 recipient of AHA McKesson Quest for Quality Prize award.