Nicole B. Thomas
Hospital President
Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Elected: January 2022
Term expires: December 31, 2025
Nicole B. Thomas is the hospital president of Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida, responsible for the operational and strategic direction of the largest hospital in the health system. Ms. Thomas joined Baptist Health in 2011 and in 2016 was named Baptist Medical Center South's president, becoming the first female and first African American to lead a hospital in Baptist Health's history. Founded in 1955, Baptist Health is the area's only locally governed health system with five nationally accredited hospitals: Baptist Jacksonville, Baptist Beaches, Baptist Nassau, Baptist South, and Wolfson Children's Hospital.
Ms. Thomas has held several system roles at Baptist Health, including cochairing its diversity, equity, and inclusion council; chairing its transformation council; serving as interim chief human resources officer; and serving as senior vice president of specialty services overseeing neurosciences, orthopedics, and oncology, with primary executive responsibility for the formation of Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2005. Before joining Baptist, she was assistant vice president of physician operations for St. Luke's Episcopal Health System in Houston and operations administrator at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.
Ms. Thomas is a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She also serves on the board of directors of Tiger Academy in Jacksonville, the OneJax Advisory Board, and the senior advisory council of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives.
She is a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives and was named among Modern Healthcare magazine's Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare in 2018 and 2020 and one of 70 African American leaders in healthcare to know by Becker's Hospital Review in 2020. Other distinctions include being named Woman of Vision by Girls Inc., Woman on the Move by ONYX magazine, and Woman of Distinction by the Northeast Florida Girl Scout Council. She has also received the Volunteers in Medicine Women with Heart Award and the Jacksonville Image Award in the Pinnacle category.
Ms. Thomas received her MHA from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 1996 and her BS from Dillard University New Orleans in 1994.