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Speaker Biosketches
Michael Bleich, R.N., Ph.D., M.P.H., FAAN, is dean and Dr. Carol A. Lindeman Distinguished Professor for the School of Nursing at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). His areas of expertise include leadership development, strategic and operational positioning of academic clinical enterprises, clinical systems design (notably in safety net clinics), work analysis, and quality improvement and outcomes metrics to enhance practice and meet regulatory demands. Dr. Bleich launched his health care career in 1970 and has progressed to hold administrative, education, and consultative roles to the present. He arrived in Portland, Oregon, in 2008, concluding a distinguished career at the University of Kansas, where he was professor and associate dean for Clinical and Community Affairs in the School of Nursing, and concurrently served as executive director/chief executive officer (CEO) of its faculty practice plan, KU HealthPartners, Inc. In 2006, he was appointed chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management in the School of Medicine, the first nurse to hold a chair role.
Linda Burnes Bolton, Dr.P.H., R.N., FAAN, is vice chair, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Initiative on the Future of Nursing, at the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Dr. Burnes Bolton is vice president for nursing, chief nursing officer, and director of nursing research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She is one of the principal investigators at the Cedars-Sinai Burns and Allen Research Institute. Her research, teaching, and clinical expertise includes nursing and patient care outcomes research, performance improvement, and improvements in the quality of care and cultural diversity within the health professions. She served as the National Advisory Chair for Transforming Care at the
Bedside, an RWJF initiative, to improve the nursing practice environment. Dr. Burnes Bolton is a past president of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Black Nurses Association.
Linda Cronenwett, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, is professor and dean emeritus for the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Since 2005, she has been the principal investigator of a national initiative, Quality and Safety Education for Nurses, funded by RWJF. Dr. Cronenwett recently cochaired the Josiah Macy Foundation 2010 Conference on Who Should Deliver Primary Care and How Should They Be Trained? She is a current member of the board of directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the North Carolina Institute of Medicine, and the North Carolina Center for Hospital Quality and Patient Safety. She is also an appointed member of the national Special Medical Advisory Group on Veterans Affairs. Dr. Cronenwett has served as a member of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health and in numerous offices in professional associations, including president of the New Hampshire Nurses Association, chair of the American Nurses Association’s Congress of Nursing Practice, and chair of the Steering Committee that founded the Eastern Nursing Research Society.
Terry Fulmer, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, is Erline Perkins McGriff Professor and dean of the College of Nursing at New York University (NYU). Dr. Fulmer joined the NYU faculty in 1995. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the new medical school curriculum and serves as an attending in nursing at the NYU Langone Medical Center. She is a codirector of the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing and codirector of the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers at NYU. She has spearheaded a number of innovative initiatives at the College of Dentistry at NYU and serves as a member of the Santa Fe Group, a think tank that seeks to identify and implement effective solutions to significant problems in oral health and health care. She has also served on previous panels with the IOM, including Violence in Families: Understanding Prevention and Treatment (1998); Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in an Aging America (2003); and Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce (2007–2008). Dr. Fulmer’s program of research focuses on acute care of the elderly, specifically elder abuse and neglect. Dr. Fulmer was the first nurse to be
elected to the board of the American Geriatrics Society and the first nurse to serve as president of the Gerontological Society of America.
Divina Grossman, Ph.D., R.N., A.R.N.P., FAAN, was dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Florida International University (FIU) until her appointment in February 2010 as the founding vice president of engagement at FIU. In this role, Dr. Grossman provides leadership in the development and coordination of focused win–win partnerships with key local, state, national, and global stakeholders. She will also spearhead a university-wide effort to coordinate and expand internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students who seek practical experience to augment their formal educations. Additionally, she will have major responsibility for coordinating FIU’s effort to receive the Community Engagement classification by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching. Dr. Grossman began her career as a rural health nurse and a medical–surgical staff nurse, later becoming an assistant professor, department chair for Adult and Gerontological Nursing at FIU, and later department chair for Chronic Nursing Care at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio. She is a clinical specialist in Medical Surgical Nursing and is a licensed Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner in Florida. Dr. Grossman was the immediate past chair of the American Academy of Nursing’s Health Disparities Task Force and cochaired the Academy’s national health disparities project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. At present, she serves as a member of the National Advisory Council of the RWJF’s Nurse Faculty Scholars Program, chair of the Florida Association of Colleges of Nursing, board chair of the Kendall Regional Medical Center in Miami, and vice chair of the board of directors of the Health Foundation of South Florida.
Jennie Chin Hansen, R.N., M.S., FAAN, was elected by the AARP board to serve as president for the 2008–2010 biennium. She has previously chaired the board of the AARP Foundation. Ms. Hansen currently holds an appointment as senior fellow at the University of California, San Francisco’s Center for the Health Professions and consults with various foundations. She transitioned to teaching in 2005 after nearly 25 years at On Lok, Inc., most recently as its executive director for the last 11 years. On Lok, Inc., is a nonprofit family of organizations providing integrated and comprehensive primary and long-term care community-based services in San Francisco. Ms. Hansen serves in various leadership
roles that include commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), and board officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance, the SCAN Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program. She is also a past president of the American Society on Aging. In April 2010, she became the CEO of the American Geriatrics Society.
Willis N. Holcombe, Ph.D., has been chancellor of Florida College System (formerly the Florida Community College System) since October 2007. The Florida College System is the primary access point to higher education in the state and will serve some 900,000 students this academic year. One of Dr. Holcombe’s highest priorities is facilitating and maintaining postsecondary opportunities for Florida students while helping the state’s economy recover by enhancing employment related education. He has more than 30 years of experience in educational leadership and collegiate administration, including 17 years as president of Broward Community College. He has also served as vice president of Brevard Community College. Dr. Holcombe has held a vast array of leadership roles and is a highly sought-after speaker, presenter, and consultant to colleges throughout the country. A former U.S. Marine, Dr. Holcombe completed his undergraduate studies at Baldwin-Wallace College and earned both his master’s in education and Ph.D. in college administration from the University of Florida.
Pamela R. Jeffries, D.N.S., R.N., FAAN, ANEF, is associate dean of academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She has more than 25 years of teaching experience in the classroom, learning laboratory, and clinical setting with undergraduate nursing students. Dr. Jeffries was named project director of the 3-year National League for Nursing (NLN)/Laerdal Simulation Study, a national multisite research project. The overarching purpose of the exploratory, national multisite project was to study various parameters related to the use of simulation in basic nursing education programs and selected student outcomes. She also served as project director for a second NLN/Laerdal grant focused on faculty development for designing and implementing simulations. Nine Web-based courses have been designed and marketed for this project in addition to a global simulation website called the Simulation Innovation Resource Center, which contains many resources for simulation educators. Dr. Jeffries served as principal investigator on an American Heart Association grant to study advanced cardiac life support (ACLS)
instruction using high-fidelity manikins. She is currently codirector on a 5-year Health Resources and Services Administration grant directed toward faculty development to teach nurse educators about emerging technologies. Most recently, she is serving as principal investigator for a Who Will Care grant provided by the Maryland Hospital Association that focuses on a new clinical redesign, integration of clinical simulations into the nursing curriculums, and promotion of online course development.
Cathleen Krsek, R.N., M.S.N., M.B.A., is a registered nurse with a clinical background primarily in adult coronary critical care. She has worked in education and quality improvement and has served as a director of nursing. She is currently director of quality operations with the University HealthSystem Consortium, overseeing the Imperatives for Quality program, a new performance improvement approach designed to ensure that academic medical center members demonstrate and are recognized for their leadership in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.
John R. Lumpkin, M.D., M.P.H., is senior vice president and director of the Health Care Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in April 2003, Dr. Lumpkin served as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health for 12 years. Lumpkin is a member of the IOM and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics. He has been chairman of the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, and served on the Council on Maternal, Infant, and Fetal Nutrition, the Advisory Committee to the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the IOM’s Committee on Assuring the Health of the Public in the 21st Century. Lumpkin has received the Arthur McCormack Excellence and Dedication in Public Health Award from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the Jonas Salk Health Leadership Award, and the Leadership in Public Health Award from the Illinois Public Health Association.
John Mendelsohn, M.D., combines experience in clinical care and research with administrative expertise for leading the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since becoming president in 1996, he has recruited a visionary management team and implemented new priorities for integrated programs in patient care, research, education, and cancer prevention. He has served as founding director of a National Cancer
Institute-designated cancer center at the University of California, San Diego and chair of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He and his colleagues pioneered landmark research into EGF receptor blockade as a targeted cancer therapy, which led to the approval of a new cancer drug, Erbitux, and helped launch a productive new field of cancer research. A member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the Dan David Prize in Cancer Therapy, the Dorothy P. Landon–AACR Prize for Translational Research, and the David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Under his direction, MD Anderson has been named the top cancer hospital in the nation 6 out of the past 8 years in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. He has authored more than 300 scientific papers, articles, and chapters, and was the founding editor of the journal Clinical Cancer Research. Dr. Mendelsohn serves on numerous community boards, including the Greater Houston Partnership, BioHouston, the Center for Houston’s Future, and the Houston Grand Opera. Dr. Mendelsohn is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School and recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to Scotland.
Robert W. Mendenhall, Ph.D., is president of Western Governors University (WGU), a private, not-for-profit, online university offering competency-based bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business, information technology, K–12 teacher education, and health care (including nursing). The university has 17,000 students in all 50 states and continues to grow at more than 30 percent annually. Dr. Mendenhall has more than 30 years of experience in the development, marketing, and delivery of technology-based education. Prior to WGU, he was general manager of IBM’s K–12 education division, overseeing a $500 million worldwide business. From 1980 to 1992, he was a founder, president, and CEO (since 1987) of Wicat Systems, Inc., a publicly traded company that was a leader in computer-based curriculum, instructional management, and testing. Dr. Mendenhall served on the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education, and is a former member of the Utah Board of the Department of Business and Economic Development.
Catherine (Cathy) Rick, R.N., NEA-BC, FACHE, is the chief nursing officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Ms. Rick provides leadership and guidance to the VA’s 75,000 nursing personnel, who care
for more than 5 million veterans a year. As the chief nurse executive for the VA, she is responsible for the development, implementation, and evaluation of national policy and strategic planning activities that support the missions of the Veterans Health Administration: clinical care, education, research, back-up to the Department of Defense, and emergency preparedness. Ms. Rick is responsible for administering the VA National Nursing Strategic Plan. National goals include strategies to enhance leadership excellence, evidence-based practice, informatics, career development and workforce, nursing practice transformation, nursing research, advanced practice nursing, and collaboration with academic affiliates and professional organizations. Significant accomplishments and future directions for each of the goals have emerged. Nursing staff members across the 1,300 VA sites have been affected positively by the work related to these three strategic goals.
John A. Rock, M.D., is senior vice president for medical affairs and founding dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University. Throughout his career he has brought academic programs to new levels of excellence, increased research productivity, established outstanding patient care units, and fostered excellent educational programs. Dr. Rock is recognized as an outstanding reconstructive surgeon, and his basic research focuses on the pathophysiology of endometriosis and the determination of efficacy of surgical reconstructive procedures and medical therapy using the randomized clinical trial. He was the first to recognize and describe the presence of microscopic endometriosis, which was the basis of the introduction of new therapies for this complex disease. He has published extensively on the diagnosis and treatment of uterovaginal anomalies, and his surgical innovations have improved the reproductive outcomes of these disorders. He is the senior editor of Telinde’s Operative Gynecology, one of the most respected textbooks in the field of gynecologic surgery. He has served as president of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the World Endometriosis Society.
Marla Salmon, Sc.D., R.N., FAAN, is Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Endowed Dean in Nursing and professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Washington (UW). She is also a professor in UW’s Department of Global Health. Her experience includes directing the Division of Nursing for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and chairing the Global Advisory Group on Nursing and Mid-
wifery for the World Health Organization and the National Advisory Committee on Nursing Education and Practice. She founded and directed the Lillian Carter Center for International Nursing and is a director on the RWJF Board of Trustees, a member of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research, and a director for the Institute for the International Education of Students. Her scholarship focuses on global and domestic health workforce policy and leadership. She consults with governments and regional and global organizations.
Donna E. Shalala, Ph.D., FAAN, is chair of the RWJF Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the IOM. She is president of the University of Miami and a professor of political science. She has more than 25 years of experience as an accomplished scholar, teacher, and administrator. A leading scholar on the political economy of state and local governments, she has also held tenured professorships at Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She served as president of CUNY’s Hunter College from 1980 to 1987 and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1987 to 1993. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed her as Secretary of Health and Human Services, where she served for 8 years, becoming the longest serving HHS Secretary in U.S. history.
M. Elaine Tagliareni, Ed.D., R.N., C.N.E., FAAN, is chief program officer for the National League for Nursing. In this position she advocates for excellence in nursing education through pedagogical research and initiates faculty development strategies to prepare a strong, competent, and diverse nursing workforce. Prior to this appointment in January 2010, Dr. Tagliareni was a professor of nursing and the Independence Foundation Chair in Community Health Nursing Education at Community College of Philadelphia, where she served as an associate degree nursing educator for more than 25 years. She received her B.S.N. from Georgetown University School of Nursing, a master’s in Mental Health and Community Nursing from the University of California–San Francisco, and a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, with an emphasis on the role of the nurse educator in community colleges.
Christine A. Tanner, R.N., Ph.D., FAAN, is A.B. Youmans-Spaulding Distinguished Professor at OHSU and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nursing Education. Dr. Tanner’s program of research focuses on development of expertise in clinical judgment and the impact of different edu-
cation models on the development of skill in clinical judgment. For the past decade, she has been one of Oregon’s leaders in creating educational solutions to the nursing shortage, including ways to increase enrollment and prepare a new kind of nurse in the context of rapid changes in the nursing practice environment and health care needs. The Oregon Consortium for Nursing Education (OCNE) was launched in 2003 as a partnership among OHSU and several community colleges. It is designed to incorporate best practices in teaching and learning with a shared curriculum that focuses on care-health promotion, chronic illness management, acute care, and skills needed by the nurse in this rapidly changing environment. This environment includes population-based and systems thinking, sound clinical judgment using best available evidence, and the ability to work with and lead interdisciplinary teams. Dr. Tanner is currently principal investigator for two studies: one focused on evaluating the outcomes of OCNE, and the second on the effectiveness of a new clinical education model designed, in part, to increase educational capacity.
Rose Yuhos, R.N., has been executive director of the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) of Southern Nevada for the past 19 years. This nonprofit organization provides continuing education for health care professionals; enrichment and health career awareness programs, as well academic areas for at-risk students; family and life skills training; and outreach for women who need screening and treatment for breast and cervical cancer. In this role, Ms. Yuhos provides leadership, grant direction, and management of all aspects of AHEC programs. She develops community outreach, staff supervision, and fiscal management of professional education curriculums, and serves as ex-officio member of the AHEC Board of Trustees. Prior to her current position, Ms. Yuhos served as associate director of the Las Vegas AIDS Education and Training Center; director of clinical services for the Community Health Centers of Southern Nevada; and program specialist for AHEC of Southern Nevada.
