MIDLANDS Business Journal 1975
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY ACROSS NEBRASKA & BEYOND
MBJ.COM
VOLUME 52 No.12
2025
$2.00
MARCH 20, 2026
Choose Optimism METHODIST CEO ON CULTURE, FAITH BY DAISY HUTZELL-RODMAN
CHI Health Center Omaha + Virtual
Josie Abboud did not flinch when a colleague told her that her promotion to vice president came because she “wears a skirt.” By then, she’d already spent 12 years at Methodist Health System, beginning as a nurse on the night shift in the ICU and moving through leadership roles. She knew what she’d built. “It’s really unfortunate that those are the words you choose to use,” she told the colleague. “I would invite you to just take a look back at what I’ve accomplished here at Methodist, because I’ve earned this role.” Today, Abboud is president and CEO of Methodist Health System, the first woman to lead the organization in its 135year history. She oversees more than 800 licensed beds, 1,000 physicians, and a regional footprint spanning four hospitals, more than 30 clinics, and a nursing college across Nebraska and Iowa. The path from bedside nurse to system CEO took three decades, all at one institution. Her leadership philosophy is straightforward: belonging comes first, optimism follows and authority is earned through demonstrated competence. It’s a framework built from childhood — Abboud was the second of eight children, responsible for helping raise her younger siblings — and tested through the pandemic, when she led thousands of employees through unprecedented uncertainty. The role she holds now is the biggest she’s ever had. It’s also, unexpectedly, the loneliest.
April 22METHODIST CEO ON PAGE 06 OPT IN 2026 ICAN WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
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