Speaker

Hussein Michael Tahan, PhD, RN, FAAN, FCM
Chief Nursing Officer and System Vice President
Nursing Professional Development, Workforce Management, and Academic Affairs
MedStar Health

Hussein M. Tahan is an internationally recognized nurse leader, scholar, and expert in case management and care coordination. He currently serves as Chief Nursing Officer & System Vice President for Nursing Professional Development, Workforce Management, and Academic Affairs at MedStar Health.

Hussein has led transformative initiatives in nursing practice, workforce strategy, and care delivery models across large health systems. With over 30 years of experience, he has significantly advanced the field of professional case management through research, education, and policy. He has authored over 110 publications, including award-winning textbooks and national research studies on the roles and functions of case managers. 

Hussein is a past commissioner and chair of the Commission for Case Manager Certification, editorial advisory board member of the Professional Case Management and CMSA Today journals. He just finished his term as the chair of the American Academy of Nursing-Institute of Nursing Leadership National Advisory Council; he is currently a member of the National Advisory Board of the Vizient/AACN New to Practice Nurse Residency Program, a member of the CNO Advisory group for Symplr, a member of the Aya Healthcare Workforce Technology Advisory Board, and a member of the CCNE Finance Committee.

Hussein is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and an inaugural fellow in case management conferred by the Case Management Society of America (CMSA). He is a two-time recipient of the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. In 2016, CMSA presented Hussein with the Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2025, the National Award of Service Excellence, both recognizing his unwavering contributions to professional case management practice.

Hussein received his Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, his Master’s of Science degree in nursing administra tion from the University of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, NY, and his Doctor of Philosophy from Columbia University in New York City, NY.
 

 

Speakers

Jennifer Lollar
Executive Director, Strategic Marketing & Communications
University of Alabama Birmingham

Jennifer Lollar is the Executive Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications for the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing. She has been with UAB since 2001, starting in UAB Public Relations & Marketing as a media relations specialist, first for the University side of campus and then from 2005 to 2013 for the health schools and medical center. She moved to the School of Nursing in 2013 and now leads an eight-member marketing and communications team that is responsible for all communications and marketing functions, with the exception of media relations, for the school. Prior to joining UAB she was a general assignment and business reporter for newspapers in the Birmingham area.

 

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 Sena tor 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 Uni versity 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.