The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com.
Maryann Lansangan oversees the largest workforce at Mercy San Juan Medical Center. Her charge, as chief nursing executive officer, is to ensure nurses and patients are treated safely and with compassion.
Or, in her words, “take care of the people who take care of the people.”
Lansangan spent decades doing the work she now oversees — first in the Philippines, where she grew up, then in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois and California.
She came to the U.S. in 1994, after picking Kansas City, Missouri, from a list of U.S. cities that were recruiting nurses through a staffing agency. She only expected, as a 24-year-old, to stay in the U.S. for a couple of years.
Maryann Lansangan, a transformational nurse executive, poses for a portrait after being recognized as one of this year’s Change Makers on Saturday, July 11, 2026. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
She worked at hospitals in Kansas and Illinois before moving to California, where she worked in a number of cities before ultimately being recruited to the hospital in Carmichael.
“I’m a better person, I’m a better friend, better mother — because I’m a nurse, because of what I see. Every time you come to work, and you are in front of patients at their most vulnerable… it makes you just a better human being, I believe. Kinder, more patient, more forgiving,” Lansangan said. “And nurses are the best people. They’re the funniest. They have the best sense of humor. They have the resilience.”
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Annika Merrilees is a business reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously spent five years covering business and healthcare for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.