Chief Nursing Officer, Chandler Medical Center
UK HealthCare
Lexington, Kentucky

Kimberly Blanton, DNP, MHA, RN, NEA-BC, is a board-certified nursing executive with more than 27 years of progressive nursing leadership experience across academic medicine, hospital operations, critical care, cardiovascular services, interventional services, and enterprise infection prevention.

Dr. Blanton began her career in 1998 as a critical care nurse in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit at UK HealthCare. Over the next decade, she advanced through multiple nursing leadership roles before serving as Director of Critical Care Nursing at Pikeville Medical Center in 2008. She returned to UK HealthCare in January 2011 as a Hospital Operations Administrator and later served for 10 years as Enterprise Nursing Operations Director for the Cardiovascular Service Line, Interventional Services, and the Enterprise Infection Prevention and Control program. She earned her Master of Healthcare Administration from the University of Phoenix in 2009 and her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Kentucky in 2020. She currently serves as Chief Nursing Officer for Chandler Medical Center at UK HealthCare, where her leadership focuses on advancing nursing practice, strengthening operational performance, supporting workforce resilience, and improving care outcomes across a complex academic health system.