Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk is vice president for health promotion, university chief wellness officer, dean and professor at the College of Nursing, professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at the College of Medicine, and founder and executive director at the Fuld Institute for EBP, all at The Ohio State University. Melnyk earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from West Virginia University, her Master of Science degree with a specialization in nursing care of children and pediatric nurse practitioner from the University of Pittsburgh and her PhD in clinical research from the University of Rochester where she also completed her post-master’s certificate as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. She is a nationally/internationally recognized expert in evidence-based practice, intervention research, child and adolescent mental health, and health and wellness and is a frequent keynote speaker at national and international conferences on these topics.

Lynn Gallagher-Ford is chief operating officer and clinical core director of the Fuld Insititue for EBP, where her work is dedicated to research, education and consultation focused on the development, promotion, integration, implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practice in both academic and clinical settings.

Gallagher-Ford’s clinical background in maternal-child health and nursing administration spans 30 years. She served in a variety of roles ranging from bedside clinician to chief nursing officer, in which she gained extensive experience and expertise in teaching and implementing evidence-based practice in real-world clinical settings. Gallagher-Ford is currently active as a consultant, facilitator and keynote presenter at national and international conferences and education programs.

Cindy Zellefrowis assistant professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and director of the Academic Core. Zellefrow has traveled the world presenting, teaching, consulting and collaborating with faculty about various aspects of EBP in academia and practice. She is actively engaged in research and publishing about various aspects of EBP, including EBP teaching, integration and competency. In addition to articles on various aspects of EBP, she is a contributing author to several textbooks about EBP, and has created online interactive EBP education resources for several textbooks as well. Zellefrow’s research interests include various aspects of EBP in both academic and clinical settings as well as wellness in newly graduated nurses.  As faculty in the OSU College of Nursing, she teaches EBP, mentors faculty around EBP integration and has led re-imagination of the EBP courses and EBP integration across curricula. Her clinical practice background includes 15 years in adult ICU, ED and critical care transport and 15 years in school nursing.

Sharon Tucker is director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program Nurse Executive Track and holder of the Grayce Sills Endowed Professor in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and director of the Implementation Science Core at the Fuld Institute for EBP. A board (ANCC) certified adult psychiatric mental health clinical nurse specialist, licensed APRN-CNS in Ohio and behavioral researcher, Tucker focuses on behavioral interventions to promote health and wellness, prevent disease and reduce stress and risks among families, particularly among working mothers and children. Her interventions include environmental strategies, cognitive behavioral interventions and motivational interviewing, which she teaches, studies and practices.

Jacqueline Hoying, is assistant professor of clinical nursing and director of MINDSTRONG™ at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and director of the Consumer Core at the Fuld Institute for EBP. A behavioral intervention researcher, Hoying studies interventions to promote overall health and well-being, promote mental resilience, and reduce stress, anxiety and depression principally among college-age young adults, health professionals and adults. Her interventions include cognitive behavioral interventions with a focus on cognitive behavioral skills building techniques, which she teaches and studies. Presently serving as co-investigator in a NIH-funded RO1, she is a recognized expert in cognitive behavioral research and trains professionals nationally to deliver the evidence-based program, MINDSTRONG™.

Kevin P. Browne has been a nurse for 34 years. A member of the senior executive leadership team at St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson, New Jersey, Browne is the senior vice president patient care services and chief nurse executive. Browne is responsible for Nursing Services, Respiratory Care Services and Infection Control across the enterprise. Before this position Browne was the vice president, deputy chief nursing officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) where he helped ensure the organizational culture was one that is evidence-based. Browne holds appointments as a Clinical Associate Professor, State University of New York - Stony Brook University School of Nursing, and Clinical Professor/Research Associate, Lienhard School of Nursing, College of Health Professions at Pace University. Browne is a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine. 

Browne achieved a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from St. Peter’s University in December 2018.  Browne’s doctoral work focused on a new phenomenon known as practice drift. He is an expert in evidence-based practice methods, cultivating a spirit of inquiry internationally. 

Karey Dufour is an assistant director of the Clinical Core. She taught and served as a facilitator for the EBP immersion since 2014 and has conducted or mentored several evidence-based practice initiatives during her Air Force career. Previously, she was assigned as a medical inspector, medical operations directorate, Headquarters Air Force Inspection Agency, at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. She led teams that conducted the Medical Component of the Air Force Inspection System. She retired from the United States Air Force as a colonel in June 2021. Dufour has been a nurse for over 26 years. 

Dufour received her BSN from the University of Maine in 1995, a Master of Arts in Management/Business Management from Webster University in 2004, a Master of Science in Nursing from Wright State University in 2012 and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Air War College in 2017. She obtained her Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2016 at Wright State University. She is a certified Adult-Gerontological Clinical Nurse Specialist with a sub-specialization in flight and disaster nursing. Her expertise includes trauma/emergency nursing, relations and human capital management, executive medicine, disaster management, leadership development, team building, academia and curriculum development.

Colleen Walsh-Irwin is the national program manager for evidence-based practice for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Nursing Services in Washington, DC. She is responsible for assisting facilities to improve their evidence-based practice programs and practices as a nurse practitioner.  She has been an adult nurse practitioner in cardiology for the VA for over 26 years. She has developed cardiac guidelines for the VA that have been implemented nationally across the healthcare system. Walsh-Irwin serves on multiple committees for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American College of Cardiology. She holds a Certificate of Specialization in Leadership and Management from Harvard Business School Online, is an Associate of the American College of Cardiology and a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).  Walsh-Irwin is an adjunct clinical assistant professor at Stony Brook University School of Nursing. In addition to being a speaker locally, regionally and nationally, she is well published in nursing textbooks and peer reviewed journals. Walsh-Irwin has been the recipient of numerous awards including Nurse Practitioner of the Year for the New York State NP Association of Long Island, the VA Secretary’s Award for Nursing Excellence and the 2021 AANP State Award for Excellence.

Cindy Beckett is assistant professor of clinical practice at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, assistant director of the Academic Core and program director of the EBP Certificate, a transdisciplinary value-based certificate in evidence-based practice. Beckett has been a nurse for over 40 years. During that time, she has worked in many roles from staff nurse, charge nurse, manager, director, educator, faculty and researcher. Her research focus has involved rural and under-served communities and populations using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies: Description of Neonatal Outcomes in Substance Abusing Women; Navajo Children and Families Living with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)/Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAE); Collaborative Communication: Integrating SBAR to Improve Quality/Patient Safety Outcomes; The Effects of Massage Therapy on Pain Management in the Acute Care Setting; Comparison of Apnea Detection by Pulse Oximetry Versus Capnography; Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: A Native American Journey to Prevention; Reduction of Hospital Readmissions for Patients with Previously Identified Malnutrition; Flinn Foundation Grant (Paired studies): 1-Precision Population Health Management: Integrated Paired Proposals for Personalized Transitional Medicine for Native American Populations in Northern Arizona, 2-Precision Population Health Management: Integrated Paired Proposals for Personalized Transitional Medicine for Hispanic and Anglo Populations in Northern Arizona, and Cognitive-Communication Screening and Early Rehabilitation for Adults with mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Beckett has been leading, mentoring and teaching evidence-base practice methodologies for over 16 years in clinical and academic settings.

Bindu Thomas is the technology & research coordinator for the Fuld Institute for EBP. In her role she coordinates the technology needs for all the Fuld Institute for EBP programs including clinical and academic immersions. She helps with design, development and management of the online programs offered and the maintenance and design of the e-learning website. Thomas also provides support to conduct research projects related to EBP, including planning, implementation and evaluation of each project. She has been with the Fuld Institute for EBP and The Ohio State University since 2012.

Ruth Labardee is the director of health system nursing quality and evidence-based practice at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC). Her professional background includes quality improvement, evidence-based practice, nursing policy development, sentinel event facilitation and teaching on-line doctoral level nursing courses. Labardee is committed to ensuring that the best available evidence is used to guide clinical decisions and policy development.

Cathleen Opperman has worked in professional development for 34 years and held faculty positions for over 20 years. Certified in professional development, advance nurse executive and pediatric nursing, she coaches interprofessional teams through evidence-based practice changes, incorporating her expertise as change agent to foster sustainability in the practice change. Opperman teaches and mentors others as the EBP coordinator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in addition to her other professional development responsibilities. A part of CTEP and now the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare immersion team since the beginning, Opperman enjoys facilitating and mentoring all things EBP.

Linda Connor is assistant professor of clinical practice at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and program director at the Fuld Institute for EBP. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston in May 2017, earning a nursing PhD with a focus in health policy. She has over 40 years of acute care experience in both pediatric and adult critical care, emergency room trauma and perioperative nursing. Prior to moving to Columbus, Ohio, Connor was a nurse at Boston Children's Hospital in the Perioperative Program where she mentored staff nurses in evidenced-based practice (EBP), professional advancement and performed pre-anesthesia chart reviews for day-surgery patients. Connor serves as a facilitator for the Fuld Institute for EBP immersions.   

Connor is a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), Midwest Nursing Research Society and the Society of Pediatric Nursing (SPN). Her previous areas of research include pediatric sedation, quality care and family-centered care. For the past 18 years, she has educated staff nurses and student nurses about the EBP process. More recently, Connor and a colleague developed an instrument for measuring nurses’ knowledge, values and implementation of EBP. The results of this work have been published in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 2016, and Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 2017. This instrument was included in her dissertation for further psychometric testing in association with health policies. Her current goal is to expand her research in the areas of EBP and policy.

As program manager, Susan Potter designs and develops projects and programs to support the core operations of the Fuld Institute for Evidence-based Practice including large, long-term and multilevel projects, national events, international agreements and new programs. She also coordinates marketing and continuing education (CE) for Fuld Institute for EBP programs. Potter received a bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish with a minor in Political Science from Capital University in Columbus, OH. She has two master’s degrees from The Ohio State University, the first in Cultural Anthropology and the second in Higher Education and Student Affairs. She has been with The Ohio State University in various roles for most of her professional career and at the Fuld Institute for EBP since 2015.

Penelope F. Gorsuch is assistant professor of clinical practice, The Ohio State University College of Nursing, and senior vice president and chief nurse executive, Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. Gorsuch is a retired colonel from the United States Air Force (USAF) with over 28 years of service in numerous clinical and leadership positions. She has also served as the clinical core assistant director for the Fuld Insitute for EBP, and the associate director of Patient Care Services/nurse executive for the Dayton Veteran’s Administration (VA) Medical Center in Ohio. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has recognized Gorsuch as a content expert in evidence-based practice (EBP) and she has earned the designation of Evidence-based Practice Certificate Holder from the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification. From 2014-2017, she was adjunct faculty for Wright State University College of Nursing and served on their Academic and Strategic Planning Board. In 2018, Gorsuch achieved Fellow status by attaining her FACHE credential through the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Kristen Nelson is program coordinator for the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare. In her role, she coordinates the immersions for the Fuld Institute for EBP including the Fuld Facilitators and attends conferences representing the Fuld Institute for EBP and the College of Nursing. Nelson has been at the university and the Fuld Institute for EBP since 2017. She is working toward a BS in Business Management.

Kathleen Williamson is the president and academic dean at Mount Carmel College of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio. Williamson is the chief academic officer of the College. Her primary responsibilities are for the overall leadership, including developing innovative academic programming, supporting student learning through academic support structures, and creating and engaging student life that prepares students for a professional nursing career. She provides oversight and guidance to direct and facilitate a culture that encourages student and faculty engagement that breaks down educational silos. Williamson is resourceful in finding inventive ways to integrate technology and evidence-based practice (EBP) with healthcare professionals and educators through community partnerships, workshops, and coursework. She is enthusiastic, creative, energetic, and passionate about teaching and researching topics such as technology in nursing education and the integration of EBP in academic and clinical settings. Williamson continues to work with a variety of healthcare disciplines in incorporating the best evidence to influence health policy, improve patient outcomes and disseminate evidence to advance the practice across all healthcare settings.

Casey Jacobs is business manager for the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare. In his role, he manages all business and financial matters representing the Fuld Institute for EBP at the College of Nursing. Jacobs has been at the Fuld Institute for EBP since 2017 and the university since 2015. He earned his Master of Arts in Public Policy and Management from The Ohio State University in December 2021.

Kathleen Martinez is the Clinical Policy Oversight Manager at Children’s Hospital Colorado. She has been a Pediatric Nurse for over 30 years and is passionate about ensuring that all front-line staff have access to evidence-based policies and procedures. When policies and procedures are easy to find, easy to read and easy to follow, patients get the best possible care.

Nancy G. Houlihan is the president of the Oncology Nursing Society, the premier oncology nursing organization representing oncology nurses in the US and globally and dedicated to the evidence-based care standards for oncology nursing practice. She has been a certified oncology nurse for over thirty years, with particular expertise in evidence-based management of cancer treatment and disease-related side effects and care of cancer survivors. In her former role as director of nursing, EBP at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York she partnered with the Fuld Institute for EBP in implementation of an extensive program at MSK to ensure the delivery of evidence-based care across the organization. Houlihan has lectured internationally and published extensively about the evidence-based care standards for people with cancer and organizational system design for best practices in care of survivors.

Molly McNett is professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and assistant director of the Implementation Science Core, Fuld Institute for EBP. McNett’s research centers on care of critically ill patients after neurological injury. In her work, she has led funded, multi-site, national trials and routinely participates in international trials with diverse research teams. She is widely published in peer-reviewed journals, has authored several evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and presents nationally on research and evidence-based care for patients after devastating neurological injuries. 

Kara Prem is the administrative associate for the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare. In her role, she is the first point of contact and resource for callers and visitors to the Fuld Institute for EBP.  Prem organizes schedules, travel and conference attendance and keeps daily operations running smoothly as well as assisting with the coordination of programs.  She joined the Fuld Institute for EBP, and the university, in 2018.

Amanda Shrout is the director of clinical excellence at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. She leads and empowers a team of master’s degree-prepared registered nurses focusing on the implementation of evidence-based practice to improve clinical and organizational outcomes. Shrout is also responsible for clinical education, professional development and the Nurse Residency Program. She is a certified Acute and Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and certified Emergency Nurse with over 12 years of nursing experience ranging from bedside clinician to nursing administration. Shrout is an expert in the dissemination of evidence-based practice across care continuums and has worked with the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare since 2015.

Dónal P. O’Mathúna is associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, serves as Cochrane Affiliate program director at the Fuld Institute for EBP and teaches in The Ohio State University Center for Bioethics. His degrees are in pharmacy and ethics, with research interests focused on both evidence-based practice (EBP) and healthcare ethics. His EBP activities have focused on systematic reviews with Cochrane and he is a member of the Cochrane US Network Executive Committee. O’Mathúna has conducted systematic review training in Ireland, the UK and the USA, and is co-author on a number of systematic reviews in the Cochrane Library. His ethics research has focused on disasters, pandemics and humanitarian crises. He is co-editor of Ethical Issues in Covert, Security and Surveillance Research (Emerald, 2021), Disasters: Core Concepts and Ethical Issues (Springer, 2018) and other edited books. O’Mathúna is the principal investigator on funded research projects examining research ethics in the context of disasters and humanitarian crises. He is also a member of research teams examining ethical issues and moral injury experienced by US nurses during COVID-19. He has contributed to ethics initiatives and guidelines with the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other international agencies. He has spoken and published widely, including peer-reviewed articles in Bioethics, BMC Medical Ethics, Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine and Worldviews on Evidence-based Nursing.

Kerry Milner is a professor in the Davis & Henley College of Nursing at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut where she teaches in the Doctor of Nursing Practice, Family Nurse Practitioner Program. She has had several principal investigator and co-principal investigator grants from Sacred Heart University to conduct research to improve the care of patients with cardiovascular disease and explore evidence-based practices in nursing and health professions faculty. Milner has received funding for research on national visiting practices in adult intensive care units from the Helen Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare, and a multi-million-dollar grant from HRSA to address the opioid crisis in Connecticut. She is a reviewer for the EBP certificate program. These diverse activities are unified by an appreciation for the power of interdisciplinary EBP, QI, and research teams to advance patient and family care. Milner has published her results from numerous research studies and EBP-QI in nursing and other healthcare journals.

Wendy Bowles serves in the role of the assistant dean for Baccalaureate Programs at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. She has embraced evidence-based practice since her early days as a nurse over twenty years ago and subsequently as a nurse practitioner. Bowles began her journey in nursing education in 2005 and realized the importance of educating future nurses for current practice environments relying on the most current evidence for decision making. She is committed to advancing the science of evidence-based pedagogies of teaching and learning in nursing education. Her research includes work with alternative pedagogies, curricular development and student engagement. Bowles has presented her work both nationally and internationally in the form of podium and poster presentations and engages on a regular basis with the Fuld Institute for EBP to assist educators and practitioners through learning the evidence-based practice process.

Haley Roberts works alongside Dr. Sharon Tucker, Implementation Science Core director, as her project and administration coordinator. She holds a BS in Neuroscience (Neurobiology) from the University of Cincinnati. Roberts has been at the Fuld Institute for EBP since 2018 and previously worked for three years as a Research Assistant in the Children’s Cognitive Research Lab at the University of Cincinnati under Heidi Kloos.

Inga Zadvinskis is assistant director of the Community Core at the Fuld Institute for EBP. Zadvinskis earned her PhD in Nursing Science from The Ohio State University after receiving her MSN, Nurse Practitioner with a focus on adult health, primary care from Wayne State University and BSN from Michigan State. Her nursing career began with serving patients in the surgical step-down and surgical ICU settings. Zadvinskis has worked as a nurse practitioner in primary care and pre-admission testing. In her clinical educator role, she promoted evidence-based practice and the Magnet™ accreditation process. Zadvinskis has mentored teams of interprofessional staff conducting evidence-based practice projects and nursing research in hospital settings. Her dissertation work explored contributing factors to patient safety and adverse events in the hospital setting. She has numerous publications related to patient safety, safe patient handling and mobility, and health information technology. Zadvinskis is delighted to be part of the Fuld Institute for EBP interprofessional team that promotes evidence-based interventions to improve health and quality outcomes.

Colleen O’Leary has over 30 years of oncology nursing experience.  She graduated from The Ohio State University College of Nursing with her DNP and her BSN and Loyola University Chicago with her MSN. O'Leary is certified as an Advanced Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist from the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation. Trained as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, her current position is associate director of nursing evidence-based practice for The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. O’Leary is widely published and has presented on a variety of oncology nursing and evidence-based practice topics locally, nationally and internationally.

Nancy Powell is the director of professional development at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, a member of Geisinger, located in southern New Jersey. Powell‘s more than 40 years of nursing experience include nurse midwifery, nursing education and professional development. In her role, she strives to infuse, support and sustain a culture of EBP through mentoring staff to increase their EBP knowledge and skills to improve outcomes. 

Jeff Messinger is the statistician for the Fuld Institute for EBP. He assists with statistical analyses and data visualizations for the various research projects being conducted by the Fuld Institute for EBP. Messinger received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from The Ohio State University and his master’s degree in statistics from Miami University. Before joining the Fuld Institute for EBP in August 2021, he was a lecturer in the statistics department at Miami University.  

Zineb Habroune is the program assistant for the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare. In her role, she runs the virtual EBP immersions and helps with the planning of in-person events. She recently graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Public Health and has worked in community health and planning prior to her current role. She is hoping to continue into higher education in health and wellness.