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Julie Cerese leads the Member Networks and Performance Management Programs including the Patient Safety Organization, Nurse Residency Program and Accreditation consulting service at Vizient. In this role she provides leadership for the members’ experience in driving cost, quality and market performance through these subscription and programmatic offerings. 
Prior to this, Julie led the University HealthSystem Consortium’s extensive performance improvement products and services. She oversaw its Intelligence™ suite of performance improvement platforms, comprehensive databases, informatics, analytics, quality research and nursing leadership activities. Julie also provided direction during the creation of the Quality and Accountability Study, which is the basis for the nationally recognized Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award, presented by Vizient to the top-performing academic medical centers each year and now to three other client cohorts. 
Julie’s substantial knowledge of clinical quality improvement is supplemented by her previous role as director of quality and infection control at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she leveraged her clinical quality improvement experience. Prior to that, she served as senior director of University HealthSystem Consortium’s clinical process improvement area. 
Julie holds a doctorate in interprofessional education along with a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Loyola University Chicago Niehoff School of Nursing. In addition, she is the author of many journal articles on quality, performance improvement and clinical topics.

Senior Vice President, Member Networks and Performance Management Programs

Julie Cerese, PhD, RN, MSN

Nicole (Nikki) is responsible for the Vizient Chief Nurse, Quality and Medical Executives National and System Clinical Executive Networks. A nurse for over 25 years, with an emphasis on nursing leadership, Nikki joined Vizient in 2018 as a senior networks director with National Networks. In this role, she led the development of new networks, which hold strategic priority for Vizient including System Chief Nurse Executives and other network needs as they arose.
Most recently, she worked as a nurse leader at a level one trauma center and enjoyed the opportunity to lead in both the acute care and ambulatory environments. The focus of her work has been interprofessional team development, operational and clinical improvement &ndash; including but not limited to &ndash; capacity management, employee engagement, dyad team development, increased operational efficiency/finance, improved patient outcomes and nursing leader development.
In addition to her role with Vizient, Nikki serves on the Board of the Wisconsin Organization of Nurse Leaders, the Board of a local not for profit with a focus on optimizing care for those with dementia, Dementia Innovations and has served as an adjunct professor in the Marquette School of Nursing, teaching a nursing doctoral course in ethics and health advocacy. Nationally, Nikki has served on the American Organization of Nurse Leaders Publication Committee, contributing to the development of the Voice of Nursing Leadership publication and the AONL Advocacy Committee.
Nikki earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996, a Master of Occupational Therapy from the University of Indianapolis in 1998, and a doctorate in nursing with an emphasis on systems leadership and healthcare quality from Marquette University in 2018. She holds certification as a nurse executive-advanced from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

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