Front and Center: Heather Wise
Published on Monday, May 12, 2025
By: Rachel Vanderford, rvanderford@umc.edu
Photos By: Melanie Thortis/ UMMC Communications
For Heather Wise, life is a bit like a dance—always moving, adapting and full of purpose. Whether she’s coordinating clinical staffing, leading a board meeting or taking the stage, movement fuels her.
“Movement is my therapy,” said Wise. “Movement and music, even if it's not dance, it's the gym or yoga. I enjoy moving around and staying busy.”
A lifelong dancer, Wise’s natural sense of rhythm and momentum has also carried her through a diverse career in health care. Though she isn’t a nurse, her work touches hundreds of clinical professionals at the University of Mississippi Medical Center each day.
Her journey began with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Millsaps College, which she credits with helping her navigate complex professional relationships across departments. She then went on to earn a master’s in speech language pathology from the University of Southern Mississippi and spent 15 years at Methodist Rehabilitation Center working with stroke and traumatic brain injury patients.
“I love my brain injury patients,” Wise said. “They were my heart, and I do miss them. But I knew I didn’t want to be in patient care forever.”
Her desire to shape health care systems from a broader perspective led her to earn a Master of Health Administration from Belhaven University. That shift brought her to UMMC, where she has served in three evolving roles over the past five and a half years in the Office of Nursing Excellence.
“All of the roles I’ve had since being here have been new positions,” she said. “So, there was no one in them before to show me what to do. I’ve just had to work through them and figure out my own way.”
Currently serving as operational decision support manager, Wise oversees all non-provider clinical contract workers, including nurses, respiratory therapists, laboratory and radiology staff. She also manages the Medical Center’s international nursing program, working alongside HR and a third-party staffing company to coordinate recruitment, visa processing, travel and onboarding to support nurses arriving from abroad.
Her role spans data analytics, contract oversight, strategy and people management.
“Some of it is not glamorous,” she said. “Sometimes I’m stuck at my desk all day doing reports and analyzing numbers. But I really enjoy the parts where I get to connect with people. I think my clinical background has helped me do that because I approach things with both the human side and the business side in mind.”
Wise also helps plan major events like Nurses Week and Patient Safety Week. She serves as a RISE peer responder and helped vet the WELLE de-escalation training now used throughout the hospital system.
“As the operational decision support manager in the Office of Nursing Excellence, Heather manages workforce planning initiatives and collaborates to plan for future workforce needs,” said Heather Pierce, interim director of the Office of Nursing Excellence. “She brings a wealth of knowledge and serves as a trusted resource across multiple disciplines. Her commitment to lifelong learning, coupled with her energy and drive, truly sets her apart. Heather is the kind of person who gets the job done—efficiently, effectively and with unwavering dedication.”
Wise was also among the first cohort to complete the Green Belt training through UMMC’s Office of Operational Excellence where her team worked to standardize surgical supply cards and reduce costs in the OR.
“Participating in the training was a very eye-opening and interesting experience,” she said. “Of course, streamlining systems is data-driven, but it’s also about relationships and change management. We were stepping into someone else’s environment and proposing changes. But the OR team was incredibly supportive, and they’ve continued to build on what we started.”
Outside of UMMC, Wise is just as involved. She’s president of the board for Ballet Mississippi, with which she’s performed for decades and still appears in its annual production of The Nutcracker. A former competitive dancer, instructor and dance team camp leader, she continues to teach private lessons and attends weekly dance classes just for fun.
She’s also a proud mother of two boys. Her oldest is a senior percussionist and soccer player who has received a band scholarship at Ole Miss; her youngest, a freshman, plays football, runs track and is on his way to becoming an Eagle Scout.
Between PTO meetings, band competitions, dance rehearsals and out-of-town tournaments, Wise keeps pace with a schedule as full as her heart.
“I don’t do well being still,” she said. “But I do my best under pressure and a time crunch. That’s when I really shine.”