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Cincinnati Children's names Carrie Romano as chief nurse executive. Aug 05, 2026, 08:00 ET Key Takeaways * Carrie Romano, a Cincinnati Children's nurse leader with more than 36 years of experience, will become chief nurse executive Sept. 6. * The organization is renaming its top nursing position from chief nursing officer to chief nurse executive, underscoring nursing's growing role in enterprise strategy, innovation, workforce development and the future of care. * Romano succeeds Barb Tofani, whose tenure helped advance nursing excellence, quality outcomes and exceptional care for children and families. CINCINNATI, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - After a national search, Cincinnati Children's has appointed longtime nursing leader Carrie Romano, DNP, RN, as its next chief nurse executive. Romano, who will assume the role Sept. 6, brings more than 36 years of nursing leadership to one of the nation's premier pediatric nursing programs. She succeeds Barb Tofani, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Patient Services, who will retire Nov. 2. In addition to the transition, the appointment marks a change in the title of the health system's senior nursing leader. The role previously known as chief nursing officer will become chief nurse executive, reflecting the expanded enterprise leadership responsibilities of the position and the vital role nursing plays in shaping organizational strategy, driving innovation and advancing the future of care. Romano began at Cincinnati Children's as a staff nurse in 1989 and has held roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as vice president of Patient Services, where she provides executive leadership for Ambulatory Services, Care Management and Home Care Services. Throughout her career, she has led initiatives to strengthen quality and safety, expand access to care, advance digital health and telehealth, develop high-performing teams and future leaders, and guide strategic growth across multiple sites of care. "Carrie is an exceptional leader whose vision, experience and unwavering commitment to children and families make her the ideal person to lead our workforce into the future," said Steve Davis, MD, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Children's. "She has consistently demonstrated a passion for developing people, advancing innovation and delivering outstanding care. As we continue deepening our commitment to nursing and allied health excellence, I am confident she will further elevate the impact of these essential teams as we work together to improve child health." Romano earned a doctor of nursing in population health leadership and a master's degree in nursing from Xavier University, a bachelor's in nursing from the University of Cincinnati and a diploma in nursing from the Christ Hospital School of Nursing. "I am honored to serve as Cincinnati Children's next chief nurse executive," Romano said. "Nursing and allied health are central to who we are as a health system and to the care we provide every day. I look forward to partnering with colleagues across Cincinnati Children's to support our teams, strengthen care delivery and help shape the future of child health." Cincinnati Children's also celebrates the extraordinary contributions of Tofani, whose leadership helped elevate nursing excellence and earned national recognition, including four consecutive Magnet(R) designations from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Her retirement marks a distinguished career dedicated to advancing exceptional nursing practice, quality outcomes and care for children and families. About Cincinnati Children's Cincinnati Children's is ranked among the best pediatric health systems in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, including No. 1 in three specialties: Cancer care, Gastroenterology & GI surgery, and Diabetes & Endocrinology. Established in 1883, the academic health system leads the way in healthcare education and pediatric research, where discoveries become innovative treatments and cures that change the outcome for children. All of this is backed by an extraordinary culture that includes over 19,600 team members; Cincinnati Children's ranks No. 1 in Ohio and No. 5 in the nation on the Forbes list of America's Best Employers for Healthcare Professionals. More information: www.Cincinnatichildrens.org SOURCE Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Cincinnati Children's receives $38.4 million NIH grant renewal to expand landmark Congenital Heart Disease Genomics program. Jul 31, 2026, 10:00 ET New six-year phase will transform Bench to Bassinet from a large genetic discovery effort into a national longitudinal cohort designed to connect genetic findings with long-term health outcomes CINCINNATI, July 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Cincinnati Children's has received a six-year, $38.4 million grant renewal from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to continue coordinating a national research program aimed at improving understanding and care for children and adults born with congenital heart disease (CHD). The new award supports the next phase of the National Institutes of Health's Bench to Bassinet Program, known as B2B CHANGE: Congenital Heart disease Advancing New understanding in GEnomics. The work builds on more than 15 years of federal investment in the Congenital Heart Disease GEnetic NEtwork Study, or CHD GENES, which has enrolled more than 14,000 people with CHD and more than 18,000 family members. The grant runs from May 15, 2026, through April 30, 2032. It represents the third cycle of funding to the Cincinnati Children's coordinating center team, following awards totaling $33.4 million and $21.4 million in earlier funding periods. About congenital heart disease CHD affects about 40,000 infants in the United States each year and remains the most common major birth defect. The disease includes a range of structural heart problems present at birth. Some children need surgery, catheter-based procedures, medication or lifelong monitoring. Advances in care have helped more children survive into adulthood, making long-term research increasingly important for understanding health risks and improving outcomes across the lifespan. Going beyond genetic contributors Earlier phases of the Bench to Bassinet program helped researchers identify genetic causes in an estimated 25% of previously unexplained CHD cases. The renewed grant shifts the emphasis from focusing on enrollment and genetic discovery to following participants over time to learn how genetic differences influence clinical outcomes, quality of life and future care needs. "This renewal allows us to turn an extraordinary genetic discovery program into a deeper, longer-term resource for families, clinicians and researchers," says Nicholas Ollberding, PhD, contact principal investigator for the coordinating center at Cincinnati Children's. "By connecting genomic information with clinical follow-up, patient-reported outcomes and new biological samples, B2B CHANGE can help answer the questions families care most about including why a heart defect happened and what it may mean for a child's health years later." Under previous grant cycles, Cincinnati Children's served as the administrative coordinating center for the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium and supported large-scale recruitment, sequencing and data coordination. Those efforts generated the world's largest genomically characterized cohort of people with CHD including conducting whole genome sequencing data on more than 16,000 biosamples and electronic health record linkage for more than 11,000 participants. B2B CHANGE will re-engage a subset of participants for long-term follow-up, deeper clinical assessments, patient-reported measures and new biological sample collection. Jessica Woo, PhD, will lead the B2B CHANGE Cohort and Community Engagement Core, with team members Erin Miller, MS, LGC, Dakota Campbell, and Rogerwene Gifford. The Community Engagement Core provides diverse backgrounds and perspectives ranging from cohort recruitment, community engagement, and genetic counseling, to digital communications and design. Together, this team will work to design and implement community engagement and cohort recruitment strategies across the B2B CHANGE network, engage with patient advocacy groups and CHD community members to inform protocol development, and ensure that voices from the CHD community are heard. Michael Wagner, PhD, one of multiple principal investigators in the project, and his team will also expand and modernize the data infrastructure for CHD research. For example, Michal Kouril and Jing Chen will assist Wagner with integrating new information with existing data in the B2B DataHub, known as HeartsMart, and share with NHLBI's BioData Catalyst platform. The coordinating center will provide access, tools, education and support so investigators across the country can use the resource for their studies. Rachel Akers, MPH, CCDM, and her team have been managing the electronic data capture system and data processing from each of the sites since Cincinnati Children's received the first grant in 2016 and will continue to play a vital role in this program as it moves into the next phase. "For clinicians, the promise is more precise counseling and follow-up for patients with congenital heart disease," says James Cnota, MD, also a multiple principal investigator at Cincinnati Children's. "Today, children with seemingly similar heart defects can have very different outcomes. By studying genetic variation alongside long-term clinical data, this work can help move the field toward more personalized monitoring and care." SOURCE Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center