Speakers

Jamie Robinson, PhD, RN, CNL 
Associate Professor/Associate Director, School of Nursing 
James Madison University

Dr. Jamie Robinson is an Associate Professor and Associate Director for Undergraduate Nursing at the School of Nursing at James Madison University. She provides leadership for undergraduate nursing education across BSN and RN to BSN pathways and brings extensive experience in nursing practice, higher education, and academic leadership. Her scholarship focuses on competency-based nursing education, curriculum transformation, authentic assessment of clinical judgment, and operationalizing the AACN Essentials to strengthen nursing education. Through this work, she develops practical strategies that align curriculum, assessment, learner progression, and program outcomes to prepare nurses for evolving healthcare environments and advance professional nursing practice. Dr. Robinson has contributed to national efforts to advance competency-based nursing education through scholarship and faculty development and has collaborated internationally on innovative educational partnerships and global learning initiatives. Her current research explores competency measurement, educational innovation, and academic-practice partnerships that strengthen nursing education, workforce readiness, and healthcare outcomes.
 

Rhonda Williams, DNP, RN, CNE 
RN-BSN Program Coordinator and Teaching Professor 
Ascension Via Christi-Wichita State University School of Nursing 

Dr. Rhonda Williams is a Teaching Professor and Coordinator of the RN to BSN Program at the Ascension Via Christi-Wichita State University School of Nursing. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice in Educational Leadership and a Master of Science in Nursing Education and is a Certified Nurse Educ ator. As RN to BSN Program Coordinator, she provides leadership for curriculum development, program evaluation, accreditation alignment, faculty support, student success initiatives, and academic partnerships with associate degree nursing programs across Kansas and the region. Dr. Williams teaches and serves as lead faculty for several RN to BSN courses and has been instrumental in advancing online nursing education through course redesign, implementation of innovative learning technologies, and adoption of evidence-based teaching practices.

Nationally, Dr. Williams serves as Co-Director of the National RN to Baccalaureate Faculty Forum (NRFF) and has contributed extensively to initiatives supporting RN to Baccalaureate education. She co-led a national crosswalk and gap analysis of the AACN Essentials and NCLEX test plans and is co-editor of the 2025 NRFF Position Statement published through the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Her scholarship includes publications on RN to Baccalaureate faculty needs, curriculum implementation, and educational innovation. Dr. Williams is an active member of planning teams and an invited speaker for national RN to Baccalaureate conferences, workshops, and webinars, including programs focused on implementing the AACN Essentials, reimagining RN to Baccalaureate education, and addressing emerging trends in academic progression for registered nurses. 

Stephen D. Heglund, PhD, MSN, RN, APRN 
Professor & RN-BSN Program Coordinator 
AdventHealth University  

Dr. Steve Heglund currently serves as a Professor at AdventHealth University in Orlando, Florida where he coordinates the RN-BSN Program. He brings more than 30 years of critical and emergency care experience as a bedside nurse and nurse practitioner to nursing education. In previous roles as a Coordinator, Director, and Assistant Dean, he gained extensive experience in the management of BSN completion programs including RN-BSN, RN-MSN, and Concurrent ASN-BSN programs in both fully distant and hybrid modalities for the past 25 years. During this time, he has managed the growth of programs from partially to fully online with op portunities for students to partake in face-to-face learning as an available option. He has also broadened the practice experiences of the RN student completing the BSN that address the demands of highly varied needs for nursing in the communities they will serve as BSN prepared Registered Nurses. Dr. Heglund also serves AACN as an Essentials Coach and consults with member schools to fine tune curriculum and provide professional development for faculty. He is an award-winning faculty advisor, course designer, instructor, author, and speaker on subjects pertaining to innovative learning, advising, and nursing program management.

Joan M. Stanley, PhD, NP, FAANP, FAAN
Contractor & Senior Advisor to AACN President/CEO 

Dr. Stanley recently retired as the Chief Academic Officer at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). During her 35-year tenure at AACN she served as AACN’s lead on numerous nursing education initiatives, including the re-envisioning of the AACN Essentials and now the Essentials implementation and transition to competency-based education. She has led the development of major position statements on a variety of issues, including the Future Vision for Academic Nursing, the Research-Focused Doctorate, development of the DNP degree, and the creation of a new master’s prepared clinician - Clinical Nurse Leader. Since their inception, she has facilitated the multiorganizational work of the APRN Consensus Workgroup, APRN LACE Network and the National Task Force for Quality NP Education. For the past 55 years, she has been instrumental in the shaping of professional nursing education and practice policies and regulations. She has received many awards and honors from nursing organizations and government agencies. She has published numerous articles, chapters, monographs and policy reports. She held a faculty position, 1977 to 1982, in the Adult Primary Care NP Program at the University of Maryland and maintained an adult primary care practice from 1973 to 2018 at the University of Maryland Health System. She received her PhD in 1990 from the University of Maryland at College Park with a focus on higher education policy and organization. She hold s a master’s degree in nursing education from the University of MD at Baltimore, her NP certificate from the U MD, and her BSN from Duke University.  

Speakers

Dawn Mueller-Burke, PhD, CRNP, NNP-BC 
Assistant Professor/Neonatal Nurse Practitioner 
University of Maryland Baltimore 
University of Maryland Medical Center

Dr. Dawn Mueller-Burke is a nationally certified Neonatal Nurse Practitioner who has dedicated her career to caring for critically ill neonates and advancing nursing education across all levels. She earned her PhD in Nursing from the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) and completed postdoctoral training in developmental genetics at Johns Hopkins University, where her research focused on neonatal brain injury, hypothermia and stem cell treatment.

Now a leader in academic nursing and competency-based education (CBE), Dr. Mueller-Burke serves as an Assistant Professor and chairs UMSON’s Curricular Revisions Taskforce, leading the transformation of programs to align with the 2021 AACN Essentials. She previously directed the transition of all advanced practice master’s specialties to the doctoral level. A catalyst for CBE innovation, she has helped ignite initiatives across Maryland and serves nationally as a consultant, AACN Essentials Champion and Coach, co-lead of the AACN Curricular Workgroup, and member of the NONPF Curricular Leadership Committee, shaping the future of nursing education through collaboration and curricular excellence.

Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, PhD, APRN 
Assistant Clinical Professor 
Director, Institute for Educational Excellence 
Duke University

Dr. Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler is an Assistant Professor and the Director for Educational Excellence at the Duke University School of Nursing. She received a BSN from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery from Vanderbilt U niversity, and a PhD in Nursing Education from Villanova University. Grounded by her Masterful Educator Model, she mentors faculty and presents nationally on faculty development, fostering inclusive learning environments, and employing impactful teaching strategies. Her efforts extend to guiding nursing programs toward competency-based education and researching effective teaching practices and health equity. Beyond academia, she advances health equity through Cultural Intelligence workshops and a culturally concordant doula training initiative. 

Speakers

Dawn Mueller-Burke, PhD, CRNP, NNP-BC 
Assistant Professor/Neonatal Nurse Practitioner 
University of Maryland Baltimore 
University of Maryland Medical Center

Dr. Mueller-Burke has a clinical focus in the Neonatal Intensive Care arena where she spent most of her career as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON) PhD program with a focus in neonatal neurophysiology. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University in a developmental genetics laboratory with a focus in stem cell biology. Her research sought to better understand neonatal brain injury and to identify potential interventions, including hypothermia and stem cell therapy to improve outcomes after neonatal brain injury. She shifted her focus to leadership and educational-based endeavors once joining the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing in 2004, where she teaches across degree programs, specifically in the NNP program. 

She is nationally certified as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, with a per diem practice in the NICU at the University of Maryland Medical Center. In 2011 she served as the Faculty Chair of the DNP Transition Task Force incorporating the AACN Essentials, leading all the APN Master’s specialties at UMSON to the doctorate (DNP) beginning Fall 2014. She is currently the Chair of the Curricular Revisions Taskforce at UMSON, transforming entry and advanced practice programs to the 2021 Essentials. As an AACN Essentials Champion and Coach, and the co-lead for the AACN Essentials Curricular Workgroup, as well as a member of the NONPF Curricular Leadership Committee, she is part of the national dialogue and consultant on curricular revisions and speaks at various venues around implementation of the AACN Essentials and the move to competency-based education. 

Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler, PhD, APRN 
Assistant Clinical Professor 
Director, Institute for Educational Excellence 
Duke University

Dr. Jacqui McMillian-Bohler is an Assistant Professor and the Director for Educational Excellence at the Duke University School of Nursing. She received a BSN from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MSN in Nurse-Midwifery from Vanderbilt University, and a PhD in Nursing Education from Villanova University. Grounded by her Masterful Educator Model, she mentors faculty and presents nationally on faculty development, fostering inclusive learning environments, and employing impactful teaching strategies. Her efforts extend to guiding nursing programs toward competency-based education and researching effective teaching practices and health equity. Beyond academia, she advances health equity through Cultural Intelligence workshops and a culturally concordant doula training initiative. 

Speakers

Laurie Kennedy-Malone, PhD, GNP-BC, FAANP, FGSA, FAAN
Professor of Nursing
University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Laurie Kennedy-Malone has been a certified gerontological nurse practitioner since 1982 and a professor of nursing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) since 1990. She was the 2007 recipient of the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing Faculty Champion and the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners' Excellence in Education Award in 2006. In November 2018, she was awarded a Certificate of Recognition for Excellence as a Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. She coauthored Integrating Gerontological Content into Advanced Practice Nursing Education and Advanced Practice Nursing in the Care of Older Adults. Both books received AJN Book of the Year Awards. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications. A former president of the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners, she later served as a Director at Large of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association (GAPNA). In 2020, Dr. Kennedy-Malone received the Excellence in Leadership Award from GAPNA and, in 2021, the Excellence in Creativity & Innovation, Edith Moore Copeland Founders Award from Sigma Theta Tau International. Dr. Kennedy-Malone is a recent recipient of the AACN Faculty Scholars Grant Program for her work on Enhancing Nurse Practitioner Competency-Based Education and Assessment with Innovative Video Simulations.

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