Gayle York
December 2025
Gayle
York
,
BS, RN
Recruitment and Retention
University of Michigan Health - Michigan Medicine
Ann Arbor
,
MI
United States
Her impact on patients, families, candidates, and colleagues is immeasurable.
Gayle’s career in nursing spans an impressive 36 years. For the past 17 years, she has devoted herself to the field of nurse recruitment, including 14 years as a valued member of our Nurse and PA Recruitment and Retention team at the University of Michigan Health. Throughout this time, Gayle has been an essential contributor to our team’s success and a trusted partner to leaders across our health system.
During her tenure, Gayle has built strong, enduring relationships with hiring leaders. Her expertise, sound judgment, and dependable guidance have made her a go-to resource for recruitment and retention questions. She works tirelessly to identify strong candidates and consistently upholds safe hiring practices, ensuring we bring forward exceptional nursing talent and retain the skilled professionals who provide exceptional care for our patients.
Gayle is known for her diligence and thoroughness in sourcing and reviewing candidates. She applies her extensive recruitment and management experience with care and precision, always striving to identify the best match for both the candidate and the hiring leader.
Her contributions extend well beyond recruitment. For the past 12+ years, Gayle has served as the DAISY Coordinator, a role in which she has consistently gone above and beyond to honor the extraordinary care provided by our U-M nurses. Gayle diligently reviewed each nomination and thoughtfully selected award winners, while also demonstrating an unwavering dedication to ensure that every nurse nominated was identified and received a pin as recognition.
Michigan Medicine celebrated its 200th DAISY Award recipient last year, a milestone she played a key role in achieving. Gayle has also been an integral driver in expanding the reach and impact of the DAISY program.
In 2019, our sponsor, Sharman Lamka, provided another generous contribution that allowed for an additional 12 awards, for a total of 24 per year. Recognizing the need for greater accessibility, Gayle assisted with implementing a new, easy-to-access nomination process with new whiteboard posters and magnets, a TEXT to nominate feature, and the availability to nominate online using a QR code.
The goal to create more exposure and gain patient and family stories of the exceptional care that occurs all day, every day at U-M Health, and to honor the extraordinary nurses at UM was exceeded. The additional program exposure and easy, creative methods to nominate a nurse led to more than double the typical volume of nominations.
In FY25, our patients and families nominated a record number of UM nurses, totaling 2,303. This is up 500% over the last 10 years.
To support this growth and ensure sustained recognition, Gayle developed a tracking tool to monitor nomination trends and continue to identify nurses with multiple nominations, so they continue to be honored appropriately. This system truly strengthened the integrity of the program and enhanced the consistency of recognition across the system.
Throughout her nursing career, Gayle has embodied the core values of the DAISY Foundation: compassion, excellence in her role, and a profound commitment to the nursing, recruitment, and retention professions. Her impact on patients, families, candidates, and colleagues is immeasurable.
During her tenure, Gayle has built strong, enduring relationships with hiring leaders. Her expertise, sound judgment, and dependable guidance have made her a go-to resource for recruitment and retention questions. She works tirelessly to identify strong candidates and consistently upholds safe hiring practices, ensuring we bring forward exceptional nursing talent and retain the skilled professionals who provide exceptional care for our patients.
Gayle is known for her diligence and thoroughness in sourcing and reviewing candidates. She applies her extensive recruitment and management experience with care and precision, always striving to identify the best match for both the candidate and the hiring leader.
Her contributions extend well beyond recruitment. For the past 12+ years, Gayle has served as the DAISY Coordinator, a role in which she has consistently gone above and beyond to honor the extraordinary care provided by our U-M nurses. Gayle diligently reviewed each nomination and thoughtfully selected award winners, while also demonstrating an unwavering dedication to ensure that every nurse nominated was identified and received a pin as recognition.
Michigan Medicine celebrated its 200th DAISY Award recipient last year, a milestone she played a key role in achieving. Gayle has also been an integral driver in expanding the reach and impact of the DAISY program.
In 2019, our sponsor, Sharman Lamka, provided another generous contribution that allowed for an additional 12 awards, for a total of 24 per year. Recognizing the need for greater accessibility, Gayle assisted with implementing a new, easy-to-access nomination process with new whiteboard posters and magnets, a TEXT to nominate feature, and the availability to nominate online using a QR code.
The goal to create more exposure and gain patient and family stories of the exceptional care that occurs all day, every day at U-M Health, and to honor the extraordinary nurses at UM was exceeded. The additional program exposure and easy, creative methods to nominate a nurse led to more than double the typical volume of nominations.
In FY25, our patients and families nominated a record number of UM nurses, totaling 2,303. This is up 500% over the last 10 years.
To support this growth and ensure sustained recognition, Gayle developed a tracking tool to monitor nomination trends and continue to identify nurses with multiple nominations, so they continue to be honored appropriately. This system truly strengthened the integrity of the program and enhanced the consistency of recognition across the system.
Throughout her nursing career, Gayle has embodied the core values of the DAISY Foundation: compassion, excellence in her role, and a profound commitment to the nursing, recruitment, and retention professions. Her impact on patients, families, candidates, and colleagues is immeasurable.