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STORRS — Barbara P. Riley (UConn MS/1991) of Pomfret is one of five UConn School of Nursing alumni who received an award as part of the school’s recent annual Reflections of Excellence ceremony. Riley received the Carolyn Ladd Widmer Outstanding Alumni for Leadership in Nursing Award. This award, named after the founding dean of the School of Nursing, Carolyn L. Widmer (1942 - 1967), was established to honor distinguished alumni who have demonstrated excellence in nursing leadership.
Riley is senior vice-president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. She oversees the department of nursing, spanning the emergency department, peri-operative services and adult patient services in the state’s largest acute care hospital and only Level I trauma center and its pediatric division, Hasbro Children’s Hospital. She is responsible for strategic planning, nursing standards of practice, and quality outcomes throughout the organization. Riley has over 30 years of nursing and management experience in progressively responsible roles. She was the director of critical care and inpatient services at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam. Prior to that, she spent fifteen years at Hartford Hospital where she gained an understanding of the complexity of an urban teaching hospital. Riley earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing from Ohio State University and a master of science in nursing administration from UConn. She is currently a doctoral student at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions. She holds board certification as a nurse executive at the advanced level and is an adjunct associate professor of nursing at the University of Rhode Island. She is a member of the Rhode Island State Nurses’ Association of which she is also a director. She has presented nationally on a variety of subjects, including variables associated with wound-healing, nursing leadership in health care reform, and causes and prevention of wrong-site surgery. She is a trustee of the Rhode Island Hospital/United Nurses and Allied Professionals Educational Trust and a former trustee of Pomfret School and Woodstock Academy. She is married and the mother of four children.
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