Collaborators

Holly Chignolli is the associate director of evidence-based practice and standards at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She has an extensive background on utilizing EBP to guide practice decisions and oversees nursing policies for the organization. She serves as the EBP leader for the Research, EBP, and Innovation Council and guides the council's EBP initiatives. She is also a family nurse practitioner and worked in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center for 10 years prior to her current role.

Chignolli’s educational background all comes from The Ohio State University. She holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) (2023), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) (2019), Master of Science (Family Nurse Practitioner) (2012), and dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Nursing and Spanish (2008). She is certified through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) and in evidence-based practice (EBP-C) from the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute of Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare.

As a pediatric nurse for more than 30 years, Margaret Gettis has served as a bedside nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner and now as the nurse scientist for EBP Initiatives across a three-hospital healthcare system. After obtaining her DNP, she was tasked with developing and leading a sustainable program of evidence-based practice for her organization. First stop was a trip to the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare (formerly the Center for Transdisciplinary Evidence-based Practice or CTEP). Gettis learned how to build a culture of inquiry to provide guidance, education, and mentorship to bedside clinicians and it has had a profound impact on her organization’s patient outcomes and quality of care. She is passionate about all things EBP and under her leadership a number of bedside clinicians have obtained their national EBP certification to further multiply EBP efforts across the three hospitals. Since her first immersion in 2015, Gettis continues her relationship with the Fuld National Institute for EBP and enjoys traveling to immersion sites to share her EBP enthusiasm.

Cathy Ivory has more than 25 years of experience as a nurse and system-level nurse leader and has been a VUSN faculty member since 2012. In her current role at VUMC, Ivory oversees evidenced-based practice, nursing research activities, shared governance, Magnet® recognition, and professional advancement programs for nurses throughout the Vanderbilt Health enterprise and is a member of the executive nursing team. 

Ivory is a recognized expert in perinatal nursing, nursing informatics and healthcare leadership and is a health services researcher. She is a past president of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and is the immediate past-chair of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Health Informatics Certification Commission. She serves on the Steering Committees of the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) and the Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science initiative. Ivory chairs the Research Advisory Council for the American Nurses Association Enterprise. 

Ivory's research interests focus on using data generated by nurses to demonstrate the unique contribution of nursing to outcomes. Clinical areas of interest include reducing maternal morbidity and mortality and impacts of structural racism. 

As a nurse scientist and director of the Center for Nursing Science in a large academic medical center, Lori Kennedy works with direct care nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse leaders, and other members of the transdisciplinary team to develop research projects and to identify and synthesize evidence to answer pressing clinical questions that have direct implications for patient care. For over 30 years, Kennedy’s career primarily focused on neurotrauma and neurocritical care patient populations across the lifespan.  Her clinical inquiry prompted the pursuit of her PhD which was awarded both a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award pre-doctoral fellowship from NIH and support from the Moore Foundation. Kennedy obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in nursing science and healthcare leadership with research focused on body temperature in the acute period after moderate and severe TBI and its impact on neurologic outcomes. Kennedy’s studies also addressed outcome prediction modeling and validation of the IMPACT model for neurologic outcomes after TBI. She served as an associate clinical professor in the School of Nursing at UCSF for two decades. She is currently an adjunct clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at Old Dominion University and a postdoctoral guest lecturer in the Centre for Research and Innovation in Care at the University of Antwerp. Kennedy has been active in professional organizations including national leadership in the American Association of Neuroscience Nursing, the American Board of Neuroscience Nursing, and the Agnes Marshall Walker Foundation. She has served in committee chair roles for both the Neurocritical Care Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine and is a Fellow of the Neurocritical Care Society. Kennedy is currently the co-chair of the Society of Critical Care Medicine update of the Guideline for Reversal of Antithrombotic in Intracranial Hemorrhage and a member of the American Association of Neuroscience Nursing Clinical Science Committee Task Force to assess neuroscience advanced practice provider roles. In her current role since 2017, Kennedy has worked to build and advance the EBP infrastructure at UC Davis Health. Kennedy is an active scientific member of the Institutional Review Board and organization-wide initiatives related to clinical trials and research in patient care settings. She continues her work in interdisciplinary research and evidence implementation in neurocritical care, neurotrauma, and other lines of inquiry at UC Davis Health and with colleagues across the globe.

Kady Martini is vice president of evidence-based practice and implementation at Indiana University Health. She is also the Region 9 Coordinator for Sigma Theta Tau International.  Martini is an EBP Certificate Holder through the Fuld National Institute for EBP, for which she is a frequent presenter and facilitator for immersions.

Cory Ramsey is the associate director, Patient Care Services, chief nurse executive for VA Long Beach Healthcare system (VALBHS). This role includes oversight for Nursing, the Magnet Program Office, Nursing Research, Sterile Processing, Pharmacy, Chaplaincy, Social Work, and Whole Health Integrative Medicine. Ramsey came to VALBHS from VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System in Denver where he served as the associate director, Patient Care Services, chief nurse executive. Prior to Denver, he was the deputy associate director, Patient Care Services, at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, Texas.

Ramsey graduated from California State University at Long Beach with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice, a Master in Healthcare Administration from Webster University, and his Bachelor in the Science of Nursing from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He is a board-certified nurse executive, advanced.  He is a DNP postdoctoral fellow at the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute for Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare at The Ohio State University.  He was the Veterans Health Administration’s inaugural associate director, Patient Care Services, chief nurse executive, to graduate as a Fuld National Institute for EBP fellow. His interests are in leading implementation of evidence-based practices, staff development, and transformational leadership.

Betty Jo Rocchio has served as Mercy’s senior vice president and chief nurse executive since October 2020.  Previously, she was the chief nursing optimization officer beginning in April 2018.  Rocchio joined Mercy in August 2013 as vice president of perioperative services. Prior to joining Mercy, Rocchio held several leadership positions in the Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, Ohio.  These included chief nurse anesthetist, system director of surgical services, and vice president of nursing and chief nursing officer. 

Rocchio has a passion and drive toward technology and analytics to assist nursing and clinical teams in patient care to drive optimal outcomes. She understands that collaboration in the industry, often outside of healthcare, produces unrivaled impact. Clinical innovation produces results when applied to solving healthcare’s biggest problems.  In her tenure at Mercy, she has worked with a software company to co-develop an automated inventory management system to reduce nurse workload while adopting scanning technology to improve efficiency in an operating room.  She has also collaborated to achieve HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 7 status with the development of a perioperative dashboard driving a reduction in variation in the surgical patient with Epic data sets. Rocchio has launched a nursing workforce strategy that includes matching patient demand and a “GIG” nursing workforce with a modern-focused company that has the platform to support efficient and effective deployment for the flexible needs of a multi-generational workforce. Most recently, she has focused on AI to support the changing needs of the clinical workforce in her top initiatives: workforce, workflows, and work environment. 

Rocchio holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and an associate's degree in business administration from the Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville, Ohio.  She started her career in direct patient care as a registered nurse (RN) in the intensive care unit; returned to school to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) and at the same time earned her master’s degree in health sciences at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rocchio holds certifications in executive nurse practice (CENP) from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and in evidence-based practice (EBP-C) from the Helene Fuld Health Trust National Institute of Evidence-based Practice in Nursing and Healthcare at The Ohio State University. Most currently, she obtained a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in the nurse executive track at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Rocchio is an accomplished speaker and has written publications in support of nursing practice and operations, technology, supply chain, and analytics.

Lee Strait is a clinical assistant professor of practice at The Ohio State University College of Nursing teaching evidence-based practice (DNP level), nursing quality and informatics (master’s level) and community nursing (RN to BSN level). Strait was selected as a Fuld National Institute for EBP DNP postdoctoral fellow (2021-22) and she speaks at Fuld National Institute for EBP events.

Ashley Waddell is the senior director of leadership development and government affairs and associate chief nursing officer for the Organization of Nurse Leaders MA, RI, CT, NH, & VT (ONL). She is recognized nationally for her contributions to nurses' health policy participation, influence, and leadership development. Waddell provides strategic leadership to leverage nurses' deep clinical and operational knowledge, as well as communication and relationship-building skills, to make it comfortable and efficient to impact timely policy decisions and lead practice using the best available evidence. She develops and facilitates over 30 annual leadership development programs for nurse leaders in New England, from around the country, and internationally.

Waddell's scholarship addresses nurse leader policy influence and nurses' policy participation, as well as policy content in nursing education. She developed the first valid and reliable nursing conceptual model and theory-based instrument to assess nurses' health policy participation. She serves on the System Board Quality of Care Committee for Tufts Medicine, and she teaches health policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Fairfield University.

Waddell is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Boston, MS from Northeastern University, and BSN from the University of New Hampshire. She was a postdoctoral senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University, a Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar, and she spent the first 15 years of her career caring for children and their families at Boston Children's Hospital.

Sharon Tucker is department chair of Nursing Practice at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Tucker served previously as executive director and implementation science core director at the Fuld National Institute for EBP and holder of the Grayce Sills Endowed Professor in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. 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.

Cindy Zellefrow is the director of the RN to BSN program and an assistant professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. She previously served as the Academic Core director at the Fuld National Institute for EBP. 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.

Jacqueline Hoying, is assistant professor of clinical nursing and director of MINDSTRONG™ at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. She previously served as the Community Core director at the Fuld National 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 Browne has been a nurse for 36 years. He is a member of the executive leadership team of Lenox Hill Hospital, Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital and Lenox Health Greenwich Village. Before this position, Browne held the following positions: senior vice president of patient care services and chief nurse executive at St. Joseph’s Health and vice president and deputy chief nursing officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). While at MSK he held the following positions: director, critical care and pediatric nursing services, and nurse leader, pre-surgical services. Prior to MSK, Browne worked at Maimonides Medical Center (MMC) as the nurse leader, cardiac surgical services and the cardiothoracic surgical recovery clinical nurse specialist. Prior to MMC, Browne worked as a critical care educator and staff nurse in the Cardiothoracic Surgical Recovery Unit at New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center.

Browne achieved a BS with a major in Nursing from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center School of Nursing in 1987, an MS in Nursing from Columbia University School of Nursing in 1992 and 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.

Browne holds an appointment as a clinical associate professor, State University of New York - Stony Brook University School of Nursing. He is a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academies of Practice and a Fellow in the New York Academy of Medicine. He holds dual licensure in New Jersey and New York. He is also licensed as a clinical nurse specialist in New York.

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.

Linda Connor is a retired assistant professor of clinical practice at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the former Excellence in Evidence-based Practice and Outcomes in Healthcare Designation program director at the Fuld National Institute for EBP. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts Boston, 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 National 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.

Penelope Gorsuch is an experienced healthcare professional with over 36 years in practice and 26 years of progressive leadership. She has created organizational cultures of inquiry to deliver high-quality, value-based, and reliable care in nationally ranked federal and civilian healthcare systems. Gorsuch has specific expertise in strategic planning, implementing evidence-based practices and processes, and created The Center for Clinical Inquiry, an infrastructure to promote and support change implementation.

She serves as the senior vice president and chief nurse executive at Summa Health. She leads and ensures nursing professional practice and quality standards of care for the health system and is an assistant professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing in the DNP Executive Leadership track. Gorsuch joined Summa Health from The Ohio State University College of Nursing where she led and designed nursing executive leadership courses and as faculty for a 5-day Evidence-based Practice Immersion and Leading EBP course. Before this position, she served as associate director of patient care services at the Dayton VA Medical Center for two years. Before that, she served in the United States Air Force Medical Service for 28 years holding multiple nursing and administrative roles.

Gorsuch earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Brenau Women’s College in Georgia, a master’s degree in nursing as an acute care nurse practitioner and critical care clinical nurse specialist from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Touro University Nevada.

Kathleen Williamson is the associate dean and a professor at Indiana University School of Nursing - Fort Wayne. She previously held a position at Tarleton State University School of Nursing in Stephenville, Texas. Williamson was the chief academic officer of the school. Her primary responsibilities were for 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.

Kathleen Martinez is the clinical manager of the Children’s Hospital Colorado Pediatric Call Center. From 2020 through 2023 she served as an infection preventionist and immediately prior was clinical policy oversight manager. 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. It was during this tenure that she fell in love with evidence informed care and has been on a mission ever since to ensure it is part of the daily vocabulary of healthcare providers.

Molly McNett is professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing. She previously served as the Implementation Science core assistant director at the Fuld National 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. 

Dónal P. O’Mathúna is a professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, associate director for research at the OSU Center for Bioethics and teaches in The Ohio State University Center for Bioethics. He previously served as the Cochrane Affiliate program director at the Fuld National Institute for EBP. 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.

Amanda Shrout is the director of Patient Care Services for the Emergency Departments at Sinai Hospital and Grace Medical Center, LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Shrout has over 10 years of nursing leadership experience and over 15 years as a nurse; serving in multiple leadership roles since starting her career as an emergency department clinician. She graduated with her BSN from York College and her MSN from Liberty University. She is a 2022 graduate of The Ohio State University with her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership. During her time as a clinical nurse specialist and as the director of Clinical Excellence at Sinai Hospital, Amanda utilized evidence-based practice to transform the Clinical Excellence team into expert EBP clinicians and driving evidence-based decision-making to improve clinical outcomes. 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. She continues to drive the implementation of evidence-based practice in her operational role.

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 retired and was the former 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. 

Inga 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 and was inducted into the National Academies of Practice (NAP) in 2024.