Past Novice Faculty Award Recipients

Innovation: Anthony Carney co-founded the Health Equity Internship program, a service-learning course where students gained experience learning about diverse health populations. Additionally, he taught an elective course in LGBTQ+ health across the lifespan. Carney was also a family nurse practitioner with UK HealthCare Transform Health, a network of health providers specializing in LGBTQ+ primary care and gender-affirming care. His teaching, research, and clinical interests lie at the intersection of inclusive excellence in higher education, LGBTQ+ primary care, and gender-affirming care. He is dedicated to advancing the skills of nurses and nurse practitioners in delivering affirming care to diverse patient populations including LGBTQ+ patients.

Innovation: Erin designed and implemented an evidence and theory-based simulation workshop grounded in Bandura’s Theory of Self-Efficacy with the specific goal of improving student competence and confidence in having difficult conversations with patients. This workshop engages students through evidence-based sessions which include both didactic content and active learning. Throughout the workshop, students participate in roleplay activities based on the use of therapeutic communication and interprofessional collaboration with both peers and experts on end-of-life care. The success of this pilot program earned Dr. Tharalson a $10,000 grant from the Mary Killeen Program for Educational Excellence at Arizona State University, supporting ongoing development and sustainability of this important work. Dr. Tharalson’s innovative work in this area was also recognized as she was selected to present this at the 49th Annual NONPF conference in April 2023.

Biography: Dr. Erin Tharalson is a clinical assistant professor and Adult-Gerontology DNP Program Specialty Coordinator at Arizona State University's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation. With 25 years of nursing experience, she is a certified adult nurse practitioner and registered nurse. Dr. Tharalson received her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Arizona in 2000 and her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Innovation Leadership from ASU in 2018.

Her professional and research interests encompass enhancing access to evidence-based care for underserved populations, health literacy support for complex conditions and fostering nurse practitioner student development in therapeutic communication and adaptive learning. She has showcased her work at events such as the National League of Nursing (NLN) Summit and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) 49th Annual Conference. She has received grants to support her work by the Association of SP Educators (ASPE) and most recently, the Mary Killeen Program for Educational Excellence.

Beyond her academic role, Dr. Tharalson is a certified wound specialist (CWS) and serves as the wound clinic director at a charity medical clinic for the uninsured. Additionally, she lends her expertise to local community health clinics through wound in-services and serves as an editorial advisor and author of numerous literacy-supportive wound education guides that have reached a global audience.

As a dedicated educator, Dr. Tharalson engages students across the adult-gerontology nurse practitioner curriculum, employing innovative teaching methodologies. Her favorite aspects of teaching are student collaboration and mentoring. Her teaching approach is characterized by innovation and inclusivity. She employs cutting-edge technology to engage students effectively, evident in her work with Adaptive Learning Platforms (ALP), which has transformed the learning experience for nurse practitioner students across various specialties.

Innovation: Dr. Don Boyd exemplifies innovation in teaching in the classroom, remotely via zoom, and in the clinical setting.  He strives to ensure that his students consider and address social injustices and health inequities as they learn to provide culturally sensitive anesthesia care to patients and their families.  He is an innovative teacher who uses advanced pedagogies and creative methodologies to optimize student experiences.  He is a mentor and role model to his students and his fellow faculty, and he always makes himself available to all of us. For these reasons, I urge you to consider him for this award.

Biography: Don Boyd is the newly appointed Associate Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program. Dr. Boyd is a nurse of 23 years, with 12 years of them as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Throughout his nursing career, Dr. Boyd has continuously utilized best evidence in providing care, advocated for patients, families, and the nursing profession, and provided high quality care to patients and families across the care continuum. Dr. Boyd has trained nursing students and student registered nurse anesthetists, and has advocated for nursing scope of practice with a focus on nurse anesthetist scope of practice. Dr. Boyd is passionate about leading within the nursing profession, leading within the nurse anesthesia specialty, and educating and mentoring the next generation of nurse leaders.

Innovation: Dr. Vitale has created a tremendous impact on doctoral education at Rutgers University. Her commitment to teaching excellence is not only reflected in her course evaluations but is also evident in the evolution of navigating DNP Projects. She has systematically identified gaps, reported results, and developed and implemented strategies for improvement. Her unwavering commitment to teaching has been widely recognized by students, faculty, and nursing administration. She has been recognized as a Nurse of the Year on a state level for her excellence in teaching. Her work to support DNP students within the school and beyond is undeniable.

Biography: Drawing on her extensive experience in both academic and clinical practice related to nursing care of children and childbearing, Dr. Tracy Vitale joined the Rutgers School of Nursing faculty in 2017 as an assistant professor. She teaches DNP Project courses while also assisting students with DNP Project development and writing of proposals, submissions to IRB, implementation of their projects, and synthesis of findings and implications on nursing practice.

Her areas of expertise include maternal newborn nursing from conception and fetal development through all aspects of perinatal nursing including care of the laboring patient, fetal assessment during labor, assessment of fetal well-being, discomforts of labor, pain management, high-risk pregnancy complications, post-partum care, physical and psychological care of the post-partum patient, newborn assessment and care, common deviations of the newborn, deviations of normal childbearing, and women’s health and family planning.

Dr. Vitale also serves as an adjunct faculty member at Trinitas School of Nursing in Elizabeth, NJ, where she teaches evening courses related to childbearing.

Earlier, she was a volunteer faculty member at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences.  Dr. Vitale was a nurse manager specializing in maternal fetal medicine research, as well as the out-patient maternal fetal medicine and high-risk obstetrical practices at Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ, and before that as clinical coordinator and assistant nurse manager at that hospital in the labor and delivery/perinatal evaluation and treatment units.  She also worked previously as a clinical instructor at the Rutgers School of Nursing, stressing the importance of evidence-based practice in order to improve patient safety and quality of care.

Earlier, she worked as a registered nurse at Saint Peter’s University Hospital and at St. Clare’s Hospital in Denville, NJ – in both cases, working with delivering mothers and newborns.

Dr. Vitale earned her doctorate in nursing practice at the Rutgers School of Nursing. Recognizing how quality and safety in patient care can be influenced by nursing leadership, the focus of her DNP project was to evaluate the impact of a statewide mentoring program for nurse leaders on leadership practices and job satisfaction. Dr. Vitale has also earned a mini-MBA program certificate. She also holds a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from The College of New Jersey.

Innovation: To facilitate teaching EBP to her students, Dr. Palokas implemented systematic review methodology into the DNP curriculum.  This innovative teaching strategy has strengthened our students understanding of EBP and has enhanced scholarly projects..

Dr. Michelle Palokas is an associate professor at University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) School of Nursing, director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and deputy director of the Mississippi Centre of Evidence-Based Practice: A Joanna Briggs Institute Centre of Excellence and Cochrane Affiliate. She has 18 years’ experience as a nurse and leader in healthcare. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Mississippi University for Women in 2002 and both her Master of Science in Nursing Administration and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees from the School of Nursing at UMMC in 2007 and 2014, respectively.

She's been a faculty member at the school of nursing since 2016. She also has several years of leadership experience in the hospital setting, as she served at Batson Children's Hospital as the nurse manager of the general pediatric unit from 2007 to 2012 and then director of inpatient services from 2012 to 2016. She was named the University of Mississippi Medical Center's Nursing Leader of the Year in 2009. She is an accredited trainer-certified reviewer for the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Comprehensive Systematic Review Training Program and The Evidenced Based Practice Clinical Fellowship Program of Adelaide, Australia. She also received certification as a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer from Tulane University School of Medicine in 2015.

In addition to her work in academia, she is passionate about academic/practice partnerships, patient/family-centered care, improving interprofessional collaboration in healthcare, and implementing evidence-based practice to improve patient safety, outcomes and experiences. She is an active member of several professional organizations, including the Mississippi Nurses' Association, Society of Pediatric Nurses, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.  Palokas is a peer reviewer for the Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, Journal of Pediatric Nursing, and JBI Evidence Synthesis.