About Us
Meet Co-Founders
Stacy Hutton Johnson, PhD, MS/MBA, RN, NEA-BC
&
Sara Macchiano MS, MBA, RN, NEA-BC
With 30 years of experience across the healthcare continuum, including roles as inpatient nurse directors and senior leaders in large complex organizations, Sara & Stacy co-founded Canopy Consultants in 2020.
Canopy Consultants emerged from a job share, that turned into a friendship, which led to the discovery of a shared passion. A passion for providing others the opportunity to thrive in their leadership practice.
Our strengths and talents are in establishing systems and processes that support sustainable change through expert leadership.
We have proven success in:
leading multi-disciplinary teams
managing multi-site / cross-organizational projects
developing leaders who are problem solvers and resilient in the face of ambiguity
creating thriving work environments with staff empowered to create innovative solutions
Contact us today to learn how we can work with you, or your team.
An experienced Nurse Executive with over fifteen years of progressive leadership roles in acute care academic medical centers, higher education, and ambulatory care. Stacy brings her years of operations leadership, curriculum design and vision for nursing ambulatory professional practice.
Stacy obtained her BSN from Saint Anselm College, her MS in Nursing Administration and MBA from Northeastern University, and her PhD from Boston College. Her dissertation research examined the influence of authentic leadership and structural empowerment on patient quality outcomes at the care unit level.
Stacy's greatest professional joys come from developing leaders to find their voice and skills in service to patient care excellence and healthcare transformation.
Recent Experience & Select Publications
Recent Experience
Stacy served as Chief Nurse Officer at Boston Hope field hospital during the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic where she hired, trained and supported nursing staff that came from across the United States to care for an under-served patient population in need. Stacy's ability to partner with interdisciplinary colleagues and establish a team and culture anchored on the Magnet principles resulted in a team that was prepared to provide patient care excellence and engage in exceptionally rapid cycle improvements.
Stacy most recently served as the Associate Chief Nurse of Professional Practice at Atrius Health, a 25 site, multi-specialty ambulatory system where she partnered with Nurse Executives and the C-Suite to execute on a vision of team-based care. Her work focused on realizing the full value of RN, LPN and medical assistant team members working at the top of their scope of practice in an empowered work environment to enhance patient care.
Publications
Baughman A.W., Hirschberg R.E., Lucas L.J., Suarez E.D., Stockmann D., Hutton Johnson S., Hutter M.M., (...), Palamara K. (2020) Pandemic Care Through Collaboration: Lessons From a COVID-19 Field Hospital. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 21 (11) , pp. 1563-1567.
Erickson, J. I., Hutton Johnson, S., Blanchfield, B.B. (2020). Using Magnet Model Components at a COVID-19–Positive Field Hospital. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50 (9), 435-437. doi: 10.1097/NNA.0000000000000912
Levy, N., Zucco, L., Ehrlichman, R.J., Hirschberg, R.E., Hutton Johnson, S., Yaffe, M.B., Ramachandran, S.K., Bose, S., Leibowitz, A. (2020). Development of Rapid Response Capabilities in a Large COVID-19 Alternate Care Site Using Failure Modes and Effect Analysis with In Situ Simulation. Anesthesiology, 133, 985–996 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/ALN.0000000000003521
Lyons, K.S., Hutton Johnson, S. & Lee, C.S. (2020). The role of symptom appraisal, concealment and social support in optimizing dyadic mental health in heart failure. Aging & Mental Health, doi: 10.1080/13607863.2020.1711866
Presentations
Hutton Johnson, S. (2020). Elevating & Empowering Ambulatory Nursing Practice. Podium presented 8/2020 at American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing National Conference, Virtual Conference.
Derkazarian, J. & Hutton Johnson, S. (2020). Grand Ole Ambulatory – Strings, Tuning, then Practice Melody. Poster presented 9/2020 at American Organization of Nurse Leaders, Annual Conference, Virtual.
Hutton Johnson, S. & Charles, J. (2019). Design & Implementation of a Nursing Orientation Program. Poster presented 5/2019 at American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing National Conference, Palm Springs, CA.
Sara's desire to support and grow leaders comes from the tremendous mentorship and coaching she has benefited from in her fifteen years as a nurse and administrative leader. She is skilled at finding the commonalities that create shared purpose in diverse teams and in identifying the strengths each member brings to the table.
Drawn to putting ideas into action and by the expertise and passion of those closest to delivering care, Sara has launched new services, designed new staffing models and implemented care re-design innovations that improved patients' experience of care.
Sara is a BSN graduate of Wilkes University and received an MS in Nursing and an MBA from Boston College. Her proudest professional achievements have been when she has witnessed what becomes possible when a leader discovers voice and moves reflection to action.
Recent Experience & Publications
Sara most recently served as the Senior Administrative Director for Clinical Operations in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. She led the administrative clinical operations for the outpatient, consult, emergency and inpatient clinical services. Partnering closely with physician colleagues and administrative teams to ensure advancements in care delivery and improvements in access to much-needed services. In her tenure, she reduced the average wait time for an outpatient visit, implemented an RN model for an injection clinic and supported the launch of a multidisciplinary team-based care delivery model.
Sara's ability to rapidly move from assessment to action was relied on during the COVID-19 surge when she was tasked with serving as the project manager for the hospital's nurse staffing plans. Sara designed and launched a web-based staffing data application to collect accurate data related to available nurse staffing compared to needed staffing. The application provides nurse executives with real-time information on acuity to better predict and meet patient needs with available staff and remains in use today.
Publications
Chen, J.; Macchiano, S.; Beckmann, D.; Chung, W.; Gartaganis, S.; Huffman, J.; (2022) Implementing Multidisciplinary Team-Based Care in an Academic Outpatient Psychiatry Department Psychiatry Online
Connaughton, M.; Joseph, M.; Macchiano, S. (2009). Truth and Honesty. In Gantz, N.R (Ed), 101 Global Leadership Lessons for Nurses: Shared legacies from leaders and their mentors (pp. 541-546). Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International.
Presentations
Macchiano, S. (2021). Team-Based Care in Outpatient Psychiatry: A journey in transforming care and improving access. Presented 3/2021 at American Academy of Ambulatory Nursing National Conference, Virtual Conference.
Featured In
Copy of SHIFT_S2_E1_Stacy_StoryAD.mp4COVID Field Hospital
Shift Podcast
Stacy Hutton Johnson shares the world of possibilities that open up when policymakers and providers come together to meet community needs.
Answering a Call to the Moment- SHIFT PodCast
Air Date August 31, 2021
Promoting High-Value Mental Health Care
This column describes the implementation of a multidisciplinary, team-based model of care within an outpatient psychiatry practice at a large urban academic medical center. Sara and her co-authors outline the process by which the innovative team-based care model was selected, funded, and implemented to address long patient wait times, lack of clinical supports, and dissatisfaction of clinical providers. This column also describes the organizational norms that had to be adjusted or sustained to achieve the intended outcomes of reduced intake wait times and financial sustainability, while ensuring that patients continued to receive high-quality care.
Published Online: Psychiatry Online