Shawna Pippin is the Chief Nursing Officer at UT Health Rehabilitation Hospital and Long-Term Acute Care Hospital in Tyler, Texas. She believes that every patient deserves a great nurse, and every nurse deserves a great leader. Shawna is responsible for the quality and safety of all patients and staff that she serves at these two hospitals. She works with multiple departments within these facilities to ensure the very best practice for the community.

Shawna is a 20 plus year nurse and has worked in multiple areas of nursing throughout her career. She started as a graduate nurse in the Houston Medical Center in Neuro Trauma at Memorial Hermann Hospital. She worked in Intensive Care for many years before transiting into leadership. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and won the Good Samaritan award in 2010 for her work in hospice and palliative care. She has been a Director of the Year and won many awards for outstanding employee engagement. She received her Bachelor of Nursing from Texas Woman’s University and her Master’s in Nursing from University of Houston. Her passion is leadership specifically nursing leadership.

She has a wonderful supportive husband of 27 years and two semi-grown girls who are smart, funny and full of passion as well as a son Gunner who is a 28-pound Cockapoo. It is rumored she loves him the most. Even though Shawna lived in Houston for almost 30 years she considers herself a hometown girl. She grew up in Jacksonville and started her nursing career at Tyler Junior College. Shawna is known for high expectations and compassion and what better way can this be seen than in a leadership.