Meet Scott Baker

Scott Baker didn't follow a straight path to nursing leadership—and that's exactly what makes him so effective at it.

“At 10, I was convinced I was going to be a dentist,” he said.

But once nursing school introduced him to emergency care, everything changed.

“I realized my true calling was in emergency care,” Scott said. “I found that I preferred being in direct contact with patients during what is often the most difficult and vulnerable time of their lives.”

That calling has taken Scott through more than 25 years of progressive nursing leadership across the country, and most recently, to Kaweah Health as our Interim Chief Nursing Officer. He first joined us as Interim Director of Emergency and Trauma Services, where he led the restructuring of front-end processes for our Level III Trauma Center — one of the busiest in California with 101,000 visits in 2025. His implementation of split flow and improved intake models transformed patient throughput and care coordination, and now he's bringing that same operational precision and bedside focus to our entire nursing division.

Scott's credentials reflect both academic rigor and clinical commitment: he holds a DNP and MSN from the University of San Francisco, an MBA in Healthcare Management, and maintains certifications as a Board-Certified Nurse Executive Advanced (NEA-BC) and Certified Emergency Nurse (CEN). But ask him what inspires him most, and the answer isn't about processes or credentials.

“It's the people,” he said. “Working closely with patients and my staff is what keeps me energized. I view my team as an extension of my family, and having the opportunity to lead and support them is an incredible honor.”

That family-centered approach shapes his goals for the coming year.

“As I serve in this interim CNO role, my primary goal is to lean into my education and leadership experience to truly understand the evolving needs of this organization. I want to become fully familiar with the unique culture of Kaweah Health and help define exactly what our teams need in a nursing leader for the long term.”

For Scott, leadership success is measured in tangible moments: a process improvement that directly impacts a patient's outcome, a staff member's shift running more smoothly.

“Making a tangible difference in the environment where care happens is why I do what I do,” Scott said.