Speakers

Christy Haas-Howard, MPH, BSN, BA, RN, AE-C, NCSN
Program Director, Health
National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)

Christy Haas-Howard oversees the development, execution, and evaluation of health initiatives related to the environment. She collaborates with the conservation and K-12 education teams to identify priority areas of common interest to maximize resources and impact. As an experienced health care provider, she tracks emerging trends in the health and environment space, recognizing and amplifying the opportunities to create greater health equity and environmental justice. Christy comes to NEEF with over 17 years as a registered nurse in the school setting. She has been asthma educator-certified since 2009 and has led various school-based asthma programs at the local and state level. She has also worked at the national level to cultivate an increase in school nurse’s knowledge and skills related to asthma care. Christy has presented and published on asthma and the upstream benefits of addressing environmental exposures and climate change. Her other previous projects include supporting a pilot air quality sensor network and health literacy project in Denver, CO, and implementing an air quality and asthma literacy Environmental Health Nurse Fellowship. Christy holds a BA in Economics from Claremont McKenna College, a BS in Nursing from Metropolitan State University, Denver, and a MPH from the Colorado School of Public Health. She enjoys gardening, playing games with her family, walking her dogs, and hiking in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Speakers

Andrea Novak, PhD, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, FAEN
Field Experience Coordinator/Adjunct Faculty
Aspen University

Dr. Andrea Novak is currently the Field Experience Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty for Aspen University. Her history in adult education spans over 30 years with most recently serving as an AHEC Nurse for about 23 years. Dr. Novak is a member of the NCNA Council on Gerontology and serves as a peer reviewer for NCNA’s CEAU Task Force as well as a Peer Reviewer for the Emergency Nurses Association Education Committee.

Her nursing background began as many of us did as a med-surg nurse which expanded to working in the emergency nursing arena and later as a nurse educator for a high-volume emergency department. Andrea is one of the North Carolina’s 100 Great Nurses, as well as a Fellow in the Academy of Emergency Nursing. She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Emergency Nursing, the National AHEC Organization and currently on the Aspen Journal. A published author and national speaker, Dr. Novak also received training as a health literacy consultant through UNC Chapel Hill and developed a strong interest in both helping healthcare providers meet the literacy needs of their patients, especially those most vulnerable; the elderly. Dr. Novak holds a PhD in Public Health; community health and education from Walden University, two Masters Degrees, two bachelor degrees, and an ADN.

Speakers

Susan M. Grant, DNP, RN, FAAN, NEA-BC
Executive Vice President, Chief Experience Officer and Chief Nurse Executive
Wellstar Health System

Susan Grant is Executive Vice President, Chief Experience Officer and Chief Nurse Executive (CNE) at Wellstar Health System, a nine-hospital health system headquartered in Marietta, Ga. Grant has operated in healthcare for over 30 years.

Her wealth of experience in various roles, such as executive vice president and chief nursing officer at Beaumont Health in Detroit, MI and Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, GA have led to achievements, including leading the nursing practice of over 10,000 nurses across all care settings and overseeing successful Magnet designation and redesignation of 8 different hospitals. She has spoken nationally and internationally and published on patient safety and patient and family-centered care. Grant is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and received her Bachelors degree in Nursing from the Medical College of Georgia, Masters degree in Nursing from the University of South Carolina and Doctor of Nursing Practice from Vanderbilt University.

M. Lindell Joseph, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAONL
Clinical Professor & Director DNP & MSN Health Systems
Administration/Executive Leadership Programs
University of Iowa College of Nursing

Lindell Joseph has a passion for advancing nursing leadership and innovativeness through thought leadership, research methods, and extensive publications.

She is currently a Distinguished Scholar in Nursing, a Clinical Professor, and the Director for DNP and MSN in Health Systems/Administration/Executive Leadership Programs at the University of Iowa College of Nursing. She co-leads the curriculum redesign for both the undergraduate and graduate programs and recently served as a Councilor and Senator on the Faculty Senate. Dr. Joseph serves as a member of the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing. Advisory Group. In that role, she co-led the development of the Conceptual Model for Professional Identity in Nursing and now chairs the committee, Nurse as Leader. She serves on the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) Foundation Board of Directors and co-leads the Nursing Leadership and System Science Council a collaboration between AONL Foundation and the Association for Leadership Science in Nursing. From 2016-2018 she was elected to the AONL Board of Directors and served on the American Hospital Association(AHA) Regional Policy Board for Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, and Minnesota. She is both a fellow in both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership.

Dr. Joseph’s areas of expertise are leadership effectiveness, innovativeness across academia-practice, and the General Effectiveness Multilevel Theory for Shared Governance (GEMS), the only theory-based program for shared governance implementation in nursing practice. In 2021, she co-published the book, Leadership, and Nursing Care Management.

Nelda Godfrey, PhD, ACNS-BC, RN, FAAN, ANEF
Associate Dean, Innovation
University of Kansas School of Nursing

Nelda Godfrey is Professor and Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, Kansas City, KS. A thought leader in nursing innovation and nursing education, Dr. Godfrey writes often on new care delivery models that can be influenced by a stronger emphasis on the nurse within—researching and developing strategies to create the whole person experience in nursing practice going forward.

Her work with the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing is transforming the way nurses, health care professionals and society understanding what it means to “think, act and feel like a nurse.” This work offers new language and new knowledge for the journey—helping nurses heal, flourish and expertly care for others. Dr. Godfrey received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri, her Masters in Nursing and credential as a Clinical Nurse Specialist from the University of Kansas Medical Center, and her PhD in Nursing from the University of Missouri. Scholarly accomplishments include seminal work in professional identity in nursing and implementing the AACN Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Programmatic achievements include creating the KU Community College Nursing Program (KUCCNP) in which community college students dually enroll in their community college and KU simultaneously, allowing them to graduate with an associate degree in nursing and a bachelor of science in nursing at the same time.

Dr. Godfrey currently serves as the chair for the American Nurses Association Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board and is formerly one of two co-leads for the Missouri Action Coalition supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Speaker

Steve Rudolph
Director of Marketing and Strategic Communications
University of Minnesota

Steve Rudolph is the Director of Strategic Communications at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, where his goal is to connect the school and its stakeholders through authentic storytelling and compelling communications. He joined the School of Nursing from the Carlson School of Management where he led the creation of the business school’s external communications and ground-breaking digital and video content. Prior to higher education, he was a public relations executive known for providing sound and strategic counsel to clients, building, and protecting brands, and staging successful events and programs.

Speakers

Chika Anueyiagu, DNP, RN, NE-BC
Director of Surgical Services
Yale New Haven Hospital

Dr. Anueyiagu is the Director of Surgical Services at Yale New Haven Hospital with oversight of Inpatient surgical units including, surgical intensive care, trauma, intermediate care, bariatric, general surgery, vascular, and minimally invasive surgery units. She has leadership experience spanning over 20 years in several roles across specialties and settings. In these roles, she had the responsibility of alignment and executing strategic initiatives while ensuring excellent outcomes in nurse-sensitive indicators. Chika earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree from Fairfield University in Executive Leadership. She obtained her Nurse Executive Board certification through the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Patricia Span, PhD, RN, CPHQ, CENP
Strategy & Learning Specialist
Yale New Haven Hospital

Dr. Span is the Strategy & Learning Specialist at Yale New Haven Hospital Patient Services Administration with primary responsibility for development and oversight of the nursing strategic business plan and nursing communications comprised of the annual report and nursing news. She has extensive experience as a nurse leader in Education, Professional Practice, Quality, Nursing Research as well as organizational customer service strategies. Patricia received her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing and is Board Certified in Executive Nursing Practice from the Association of Nurse Executives and credentialed in health care quality from the National Association of Health Care Quality.