Speakers

Karen Jagiello, PhD, RN, CNE
Assistant Professor and Coordinator RN-BSN Program
James Madison University

Dr. Jagiello is an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of the RN-BSN Program at the James Madison University School of Nursing. She earned her PhD from West Virginia University and holds certification as a nurse educator. Dr. Jagiello has 42 years of experience in nursing, including 17 years in nursing education. Dr. Jagiello’s nursing career is centered on women’s health with a focus on marginalized persons seeking care, intimate partner violence, and gender-related power imbalances. She is committed to providing nursing education that focuses on inclusivity, and to that end, is assessing gaps in her school’s BSN curriculum. Dr. Jagiello teaches students in both traditional BSN and online RN to BSN programs. She is experienced in curriculum and instructional design, course development, and curriculum evaluation. She has 17 years of experience educating nurses returning to complete a BSN degree in face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual platforms. She is a Quality Matters Certified Peer Reviewer and course developer.

Jamie Robinson, PhD, RN, CNL
Associate Professor and Director for Undergraduate Programs
James Madison University

Dr. Robinson is an Associate Professor and the Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs at the James Madison University School of Nursing. She earned her PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader. Dr. Robinson has 25 years of experience in nursing, including 18 in nursing education. Dr. Robinson's nursing career has focused on serving rural communities. She is passionate about improving access to care in rural healthcare deserts by leveraging registered nurse expertise to bridge care gaps and assist with navigating complex healthcare systems. She is active in health policy, advocating at the state and federal level for policies that better serve rural communities. In nursing education, she teaches in the traditional BSN and online RN to BSN programs, both of which focus on entry-level nursing competency. She has extensive experience in curriculum design, evaluation and planning, course development, and instructional design. She has 10 years of experience teaching in the online RN to BSN program and is a Quality Matters Certified Peer Reviewer and course developer. She was a team member of the HRSA NEPQR-funded Undergraduate Primary Care and Rural Education (UPCARE) project, where her role was to develop curricula to support primary care and rural healthcare education and to create longitudinal rural clinical experiences for BSN students.

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 New Essentials Curricular Revisions Taskforce at UMSON, with a targeted implementation of the graduate programs in the Fall of 2024.

Speakers

Emerson Ea
Clinical Associate Professor
Associate Dean, Clinical & Adjunct Faculty Affairs
New York University

Dr. Emerson Ea is the associate dean and a clinical associate professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. His scholarship interest areas include nursing education and innovation, immigrant health and well-being, and cardiovascular health. He has published on topics related to work and personal outcomes among internationally educated nurses, Filipino immigrant health, gerontologic nursing, and nursing education and practice. Dr. Ea was part of the inaugural cohort of the American Academy of Nursing Jonas Policy Scholars, working with the Cultural Competence and Health Equity Expert Panel (2014–2016).

Dr. Ea is chair of the Kalusugan Coalition, a community organization that aims to promote cardiovascular health among Filipino Americans in the New York metropolitan area, and chair of the Education Committee of the Philippine Nurses Association of America.

Dr. Ea earned a PhD in nursing from Duquesne University, DNP from Case Western Reserve University, MS in adult health from Long Island University, and BSN from the University of St. La Salle, Philippines.

Karyn L. Boyar, DNP, FNP-BC, RN, CNE
Clinical Assistant Professor
New York University

Karyn Boyar is an assistant clinical professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, the director for the Master in Clinical Nursing Research Program as well as a Certified Nurse Educator. As an educator and family nurse practitioner specializing in neurology and long-term care, she teaches both didactic and clinical courses and simulation. She has over 20 years of experience in healthcare and over ten years of experience in the clinical care and management of patients with Parkinson’s disease and Dystonia.

Before joining the faculty at NYU, Boyar was the clinical specialty coordinator at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the designated outreach coordinator for the National Parkinson Center of Excellence at the Robert and John M. Benheim Center for Movement Disorders.

Boyar earned her DNP from Pace University and MS and BS in nursing science from Pace University. Currently, she serves on the board of directors of the IARCN (International Association of Clinical Research Nurses) as a member-at-large.

Her current scholarship focuses on bringing Design Thinking Models to life for undergraduate students in the large classroom. She has presented her work on Design Thinking on the local, national and international levels and has contributed several book chapters disseminating this innovation in teaching.

Mary Jo Vetter, DNP, RN, AGPCNP-BC, FAANP
Clinical Associate Professor
Director of the DNP Program
New York University

Mary Jo Vetter is a Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the DNP Program at NYU Meyers College of Nursing. She engages in clinical practice as the founder of VetterAPN Consulting promoting clinical and care management strategies to support successful aging in place. Dr. Vetter has expertise in evidence-based quality improvement, establishing cutting-edge NP led, primary care services in the community, and virtual care delivery. She has a proven track record of innovation in practice and education that focuses on promoting the nurse practitioner as leader. She has received awards and accolades for her contributions to clinical academic partnerships, advancing and leading the profession, and transforming advanced practice nursing.

Stacen Keating, PhD, RN
Clinical Associate Professor
New York University

Stacen A. Keating is a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU's Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Dr. Keating teaches across programs in both the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral departments (DNP). She has established competencies in Instructional Design as well as Design Thinking (DT). Design Thinking is a means of teaching nurses a framework of creative thinking and innovation and has established a process for utilizing this framework within her public health classes. Her areas of scholarship interest are further focused on global public health. She has written numerous publications related to both educator and student needs. A key focus has been to assist nurse educators and students attain access to the most evidenced based resources to achieve excellence within professional nursing practice. Dr. Keating is on the Nursing Advisory Board for Nurses International, a 501c3 organization devoted to providing excellence in global nursing education, especially in countries with limited resources. Dr. Keating has developed educational products in collaboration with colleagues at Nurses International which are open access resources and are readily available at Nurses international's main website. Key courses relate to: oncology nursing, fundamentals of nursing and medical surgical nursing. Additional courses taught at NYU include: Community/Public Health Nursing (UG), Applied Epidemiology (DNP), Environment and the Health of Populations (G) and Psych Nursing (UG, simulation).

Speakers

Gerry Altmiller,EdD, APRN, ACNS-BC, ANEF, FAAN
Professor of Nursing
The College of New Jersey

Gerry Altmiller, EdD, APRN, ACNS-BC, ANEF, FAAN, is a professor of nursing at The College of New Jersey, a clinical nurse specialist consultant for Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has pioneered the integration of quality and safety competencies in nursing education since 2006 when she served as a faculty leader for one of the 15 pilot schools for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Collaboration. She currently is a national consultant for QSEN and director of the Quality and Safety Innovation Center at The College of New Jersey. She leads the QSEN Academic Task Force, creating opportunities for its 110 members to network, share ideas, and conduct academic focused research. Dr. Altmiller authored the Teamwork and Communication Module of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s Transition to Practice program and in 2014 she received a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. Her work on constructive feedback led to the development, testing, and dissemination of support tools for nurse educators and learning tools for students to view feedback as an opportunity. Dr. Altmiller was co-editor of a special QSEN issue of Nurse Educator and currently serves on the journal’s editorial board. Her research focuses on clinical evaluation, QSEN integration, and communication challenges in educational and practice environments.

Speakers

Kim Litwack PhD, RN
Dean/Professor
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Kim Litwack is Dean and Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing. Dr. Litwack has a PhD in Higher Educational Administration, a DNP in Nursing and is also a practicing Family Nurse Practitioner. In her role as Dean, she is responsible for creating the environment for the successful implementation of the mission and vision of the College and the University. The College vision explicitly values innovation, while the mission calls on the College to create innovative, quality educational programs. The creation and implementation of the Flexible Option for BSN completion is one example of our innovation.

Lisa Mihlbauer MSN, CNE
Director of RN-BSN Completion Programs
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Lisa Mihlbauer MSN, BSN, RN, IBCLC, CNE - Lisa is a Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of RN-to-BSN Completion Programs at the UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing. Lisa has more than 30 years of classroom, online and clinical teaching experience in nursing education. Lisa was instrumental in development of the UW-Milwaukee College of Nursing’s RN-to-BSN FLEX Option competency based program and has created and taught in multiple competency sets. Lisa is board certified in clinical lactation and nursing education. Lisa has presented at the national Competency Based Exchange conference for the past three years and has also presented faculty development and educational workshops at multiple local, regional and national nursing education conferences.