Speakers

Nancy O'Neill, EdD
Acting Director, William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation
University System of Maryland (USM)

Nancy O'Neill joined the USM Kirwan Center in February 2016. At the Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, she coordinates the System’s teaching and learning center directors and plans capacity-building initiatives with and for faculty development leaders across the System. She also supports Kirwan Center initiatives that directly engage faculty and academic leaders, including efforts to scale and sustain open educational resources. Previously, she served as the Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching, and Technology at the University of Baltimore for four years. Her work focused on supporting faculty innovation in teaching as well as curriculum development and alignment, student learning assessment, and institutional effectiveness. In her last year there, she helped guide the University’s general education reform and institutional assessment efforts ahead of re-accreditation. Prior to this, Nancy spent a decade at what is now the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), contributing to national projects related to high-impact practices, undergraduate curriculum and quality, student learning outcomes assessment, institutional renewal, and diversity and equity initiatives. Nancy earned a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's degree in American Studies and a master's degree in College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a bachelor's degree in journalism and social criticism from the University of Buffalo. Her dissertation examined faculty use of open educational resources (OER) in relation to the content and teaching affordances made possible by open licensing.

Speakers

Marc M. Triola, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine
Associate Dean for Educational Informatics
Director, Institute for Innovations in Medical Education
New York University

Dr. Triola is the associate dean for educational informatics and an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, where he is also the founding director of the Institute for Innovations in Medical Education, known as IIME.

Dr. Triola’s research focuses on the disruptive effects of the present revolution in medical education, driven by technological advances, big data, and learning analytics. He has worked to create a continuously learning medical education system that includes computer-based learning tools and new ways to integrate electronic data into educational research.

Dr. Triola and IIME have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, including the Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems (IAIMS) Awards program, the National Science Foundation Advanced Learning Technologies program, the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the American Medical Association’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education program.

In previous roles at NYU Langone, Dr. Triola served as director of the Division of Educational Informatics within NYU School of Medicine; chief of the Section of Medical Informatics within the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine; associate director of the Center for Health Information Preparedness, Department of Medicine; and director of research for advanced educational systems within the School of Medicine.

Janelle Sokolowich, Ph.D., MSN/Ed, RN
Academic Vice President/Dean
Western Governors University

Janelle Sokolowich is the Academic Vice President and Dean of the Leavitt School of Health. She has been an academic leader for over a decade, having held various roles, including dean of academic operations, interim dean, and faculty. Her research includes the successful orientation of nursing faculty and intentional, focused academic support of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Dr. Sokolowich has presented nationally and internationally, highlighting the use of technology in the classroom, non-academic support strategies for high-risk students, and cultural inclusivity in the classroom.

Speakers

Shelley A. Johnson, EdD, MSN, MBA, RN
Dean & Professor
Florida A&M University

Dr. Shelley Johnson holds a bachelor’s (University of Pennsylvania) and master’s degree (Penn State) in nursing, and a doctorate in educational leadership. She also completed certificate programs from Harvard University in educational leadership and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and a Community Participatory Research Fellowship at University of Pennsylvania. She is dedicated to life-long learning and was graduated from Northwestern University’s, Kellogg School of Management’s Executive MBA program.

Dr. Johnson has created, taught and led undergraduate and graduate programs for over 18 years. She serves as the Dean and Professor at the Florida A & M University, School of Nursing. She has worked in higher education administration for Chamberlain University, Lincoln University, Rutgers University, LaSalle University, and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

She was the Founding Director and Chair of Nursing and Health Science at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. She recently served as a Dean at Chamberlain University and as an independent consultant for Kairos Solutions, LLC. Her specialties include higher education, leadership, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and community health. She is certified as a nurse executive, nurse educator, and as a comprehensive systematic reviewer.

Dr. Johnson lives servant leadership. She served as the President of Sigma Theta Tau, Xi Chapter at University of Pennsylvania through 2019 and continues to serve on other community organization boards. She has served as a reviewer for Joanna Briggs Institute, the Journal of Leadership, ABNFF, and Sigma Theta Tau International. She has published articles and book chapters, served as subject matter expert, and participated in research related to a variety of topics. These topics included: Healthy educational environments, health disparities, cultural diversity, advocacy, leadership, VUCA management and digital transformation, and nursing education. Her research interests include nursing, healthcare, and general edu cational practices, healthy work environments, and leadership development.

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

Cheryl Lacasse, PhD, RN, AOCNS
Clinical Professor and Director of Teaching, Learning, an dEvaluation
College of Nursing
University of Arizona

Dr. Cheryl Lacasse received her Ph.D. in Nursing from the University of Utah in 2017 and her M.S. in Nursing from Boston College in 1989. She is a Center for University Education Scholarship (CUES) Fellow at the University of Arizona and an Advanced Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist (Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation).

Connie Miller, DNP, RNC-OB, CNE
Associate Clinical Professor and Division Chair of General Nursing and Health Education
College of Nursing
University of Arizona

Connie Miller, DNP, RNC-OB, CNE, received her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Arizona State University in 2016 and her M.S.N from University of Arizona in 1995. She is a Certified Nurse Educator (National League for Nursing, 2015), a Certified Inpatient Obstetrical Nurse (National Certification Corporation for the Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing Specialties, 1992) and a Registered Nurse.