AONL President

Deb Zimmermann is the chief executive officer for the DAISY Foundation, the worldwide leader in the meaningful recognition of nurses. Zimmermann served in the United States Army Nurse Corps, practiced as a nurse practitioner and spent 25 years as a nurse executive in New York and Virginia. Most recently, she was the chief nursing officer and vice president of patient care services at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System and associate dean of clinical programs at the VCU School of Nursing in Richmond, Va.

Zimmermann is president of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership Board of Directors. She previously served as member of the AONL Board and DAISY Foundation Board of Directors. She also served as chair of the AONL Foundation and American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on the Magnet Recognition Program.

Zimmermann holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and is board certified as an advanced nurse executive with the American Nurses Credentialing Center.