When Leslie Jackson first joined Mount Kisco Medical Group (MKMG) 20 years ago, she thought her work life would become calm and stable. She had previously worked as an emergency-room nurse and manager, which involved 12-hour shifts at the hospital—a schedule not ideal for a single mom. But little did she know how much there would be to accomplish in her new job. “Predictable, not so much,” she says. “Even now, my daily ‘to-do’ list can seem quite overwhelming.”
Jackson started at MKMG as a patient-care manager. She remembers her first office, a converted closet she shared with a colleague. As she got promoted to director of nursing, then director of clinical operations, her offices got bigger. In her current role, senior director of operations and chief nursing officer, she manages 800 people, oversees 40 clinics, and manages care coordination, marketing, medical records, and MKMG’s contact center.
Jackson’s proudest accomplishments have to do with expansion, however. She grew MKMG’s mid-level healthcare program—a team of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, and audiologists—from one expert to 80. She opened three new specialty offices and increased the number of urgent-care centers from four to seven. Now she thrives on keeping the practice relevant and growing as healthcare changes drastically. “The nurse in me will always want to take care of someone,” she says
