Certified CNL Day Webinar

Sonya Curtis is a doctorally-prepared registered nurse with board certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL). She is employed as a Quality Safety Value (QSV) Consultant at VA North Texas Health Care System. Dr. Curtis has many years of nursing experience and has worked in various specialties. She currently serves as a member of the CNC Board of Commissioners as a CNL Ambassador, a CNC Marketing Committee member, and a member of the VA Office of Nursing Service CNL Field Advisory Committee. She is also the Historian for Xi Phi Chapter of Chi Eta Phi, Inc.

Mary K. Donnelly has 46 years of nursing practice experience, 12 years of teaching at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and now currently at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions for the past 3 years. Dr. Donnelly has 15 publications on various topics including multimodal teaching strategies and cardiovascular topics. Dr. Donnelly has spent the last 30 years working and traveling over four continents. She found that culture, beliefs and values, were amazingly diverse and so fascinating that I spent hours each week exploring the history, and the languages, becoming an active member of the community I was living in. Through community involvement, Dr. Donnelly became familiar with how our experiences shape our communication, how we learn and perceive the world around us.

Dr. Donnelly has established two primary philosophies as a teacher: to provide students with safe opportunities to think about nursing as a process based on the sciences, and to individualize learning experiences, the former of which she learned as a student, and the later as a health care provider became evident as an effective teaching strategy. She urges her students to think about very basic questions they have, and begin to question all those “facts” in their textbooks. She has realized that over the past 14 years that an interactive, intellectually stimulating classroom environment is needed. Dr. Donnelly has made an effort to be not only a mentor, but also as a teacher, to provide her students with opportunities to learn in ways they are most likely to benefit from. She wants them to understand the process of scientific thinking rather than just learning skills without context.

Megan Williams is currently the Complex Care Manager for Regional One Health in Memphis, TN. She started her career working in the business sector and moving into nursing over 10 years ago. She began working in the ICU as a staff nurse and transitioned into the Clinical Nurse Leader role of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology areas. For the last three years, she has worked in the area of Complex Care. Throughout her career, Megan has worked extensively on process improvement projects to provide increased quality and patient safety outcomes, standardization, and team collaboration. Most recently, Megan is helping to build a Complex Care Center for the high-risk, uninsured patients. She has been a Clinical Nurse Leader for the last seven years and was recently awarded the Honorable Mention for the Vanguard Award through AACN. Megan holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Nursing, both from the University of Toledo.

Dr. Pamela DeGuzman is a former hospital administrator and a quintuple `Hoo, assistant professor. She is passionate about teaching nursing students the leadership, business, and communication skills they need to change the way patients are treated through health systems theory and public health systems research.

Cory Franks is a registered nurse for 18 years starting first in intensive care with the last 8 years in the role of Clinical Nurse Leader. Cory was a member of the inaugural graduating class of Clinical Nurse Leaders at Texas Christian University in 2011. Cory was one of the first CNLs to introduce CNL practice to Texas Health Resources. THRs Clinical Nurse Leaders now number more than 140 and operate in all 27 acute care Hospitals. Cory is a founding member of the North Texas Chapter of the CNLA and served as its first president. Cory is a current committee chair for new chapter development with the national CNLA. Cory has been a frequent presenter at national conferences including the CNLA Fall Conference and the AACN CNL Summit. This past February Cory was awarded the 2019 AACN CNL Vanguard Award for his work in developing innovative care models that use interdisciplinary teamwork to improve patient outcomes.