Nicole Thomas, MHA, FACHE

Nicole Thomas, FACHE, is hospital president of Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville, responsible for the operational and strategic direction of the largest hospital in the health system. 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.

Through the years, Thomas has held several system roles at Baptist Health, including co-chairing its diversity, equity, and inclusion council; chairing its transformation council; stepping in 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 2015. Prior to 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.

A fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, Thomas 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 health care to know by Becker’s Hospital Review in 2020.

Thomas is a member of the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Jacksonville branch and was recently named to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. She is also on the board of directors of Tiger Academy in Jacksonville and serves on the OneJax Advisory Board. Thomas serves on the senior advisory council of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Health Services Executives and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. She is a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville, a past chair of the Go Red for Women campaign of the American Heart Association and Women in Local Leadership for the United Way of Northeast Florida.

A recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, Thomas was named a Woman of Vision by Girls Inc, Woman on the Move by ONYX magazine and a Woman of Distinction by the Northeast Florida Girl Scout Council. She also has been named a Woman of Influence by the Jacksonville Business Journal, a Woman with Heart by Volunteers in Medicine and is a Pinnacle Award recipient of the Jacksonville Image Awards.

Thomas has a Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Minority Merit Scholar and Institute for Diversity in Healthcare Management Scholarship recipient. She received a Bachelor of Science in Public Health Administration from Dillard University in New Orleans.