Assistant and Program Directors

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, a Master of Arts in Management/Business Management from Webster University, a Master of Science in Nursing from Wright State University and a Master of Strategic Studies from the Air War College. She obtained her Doctor of Nursing Practice from 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.

Jennifer Dean is an assistant director of the Clinical Core. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a Doctorate of Nursing Practice and a Master of Science in Nursing. She has over a decade of acute care nursing experience that ranges from medical-surgical to neurological critical care. Dean is board certified as an Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) and a member of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). Her goal is to continue to foster the spirit of clinical inquiry in those she works with and educate others on evidence-based practice.

Cindy Beckett is assistant professor of clinical nursing 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.

Linda Connor is assistant professor of clinical practice at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and the 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. Her current goal is to expand her research in the areas of EBP and policy.

Molly McNett is professor of clinical nursing at The Ohio State University College of Nursing and assistant director of the Implementation Science Core, 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 associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Nursing, associate director for research at the OSU Center for Bioethics serves as Cochrane Affiliate program director at the National 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.

Inga Zadvinskis is assistant director of the Community Core at the Fuld National 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 National Institute for EBP interprofessional team that promotes evidence-based interventions to improve health and quality outcomes.