Veronica Elders, DHA, MBA-HC, MSN, RN, NEA-BC
Interim Chief Executive Officer & Chief Nursing Officer
As the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Nursing Officer at Nashville General Hospital, a role she assumed in March 2025, Dr. Veronica Elders steers the institution with clinical, strategic, and fiduciary leadership. Her dual role encompasses comprehensive oversight: from charting the hospital's overall strategic course, ensuring its financial health, and optimizing operational efficiency, to specifically planning, organizing, directing, and controlling all nursing and care transition functions. This also includes overseeing emergency medicine and hospital medicine programs. Beyond internal operations, Dr. Elders is also instrumental in setting institutional goals, ensuring regulatory compliance, cultivating a positive organizational culture, and serving as the hospital's representative to both stakeholders and the broader community.
Elders joined Nashville General Hospital in August 2015. Her path to Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Nursing Officer saw her in key leadership roles, including Director of Emergency Services, Administrative Director of Patient Throughput, and Assistant Chief Nursing Officer.
With over 25 years in healthcare, Dr. Elders dedicated 17 of those years to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. A Nashville native, she holds a Doctor of Healthcare Administration (DHA) from Oklahoma State University, a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare (MBA-HC) from Western Governors University, and a Master of Nursing (MSN) degree from Loyola University New Orleans. Dr. Elders' commitment to leadership is further demonstrated by her ANCC Nurse Executive Advanced board certification.
Dr. Elders is an active member of the healthcare community, serving on the Tennessee CARE Early Head Start Policy Council and the Tennessee State University Nursing School Advisory Board. She is also a member of both the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Tennessee Nurses Association (TNA). Previously, Dr. Elders contributed to nursing education as Adjunct Faculty in the Bachelor of Nursing Program at Lipscomb University.