I have been a nurse practitioner for eleven years, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Master of Science in Nursing Degree with specialty certification as a neonatal nurse practitioner in 1990.  In 1994 I developed the first neonatal nurse practitioner program curriculum at the State University of New York at Stony Brook with the aid of an educational grant from the New York State Department of Health.  This was the first neonatal specialty graduate program in the State of New York.  I joined the faculty as Program Director in 1994, maintaining a joint appointment with Stony Brook University Hospital as a neonatal nurse practitioner.   At that time there were only 29 graduate programs in the United States that offered a neonatal nurse practitioner specialty track and the demand for neonatal nurse practitioners was steadily increasing.  In response to this need, I adapted the curriculum for a computer mediated distance-learning format and accepted fourteen students from various regions of the U.S. and Canada in 1996.  Currently, the program has over 90 students from various regions around the globe and has successfully graduated 80 students.  

I served as educational consultant for USAID's Health Volunteers Overseas Program from years 1997-1999.  During that time I was an active participant in the development of a baccalaureate curriculum for nurses in Viet Nam.  The curriculum was ultimately approved by the Ministry of Health in that country and is currently in place.  I presented this work at the International Council of Nurses Centennial Conference in London, England in 1999 as part of a panel entitled, "The Vietnam Nursing Partnership Model-Empowering Nurses to Claim the Future."  I also participated in establishing the role of the neonatal nurse practitioner in England and was appointed from 1996-1998 as adjunct faculty at the Worcester College of Higher Education in Worcester, England to assist in the development of neonatal nurse practitioner education.

My doctoral dissertation, an evaluation study of the distance learning master's completion program for neonatal nurse practitioners at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, studied program outcomes by measuring learner performance relative to program objectives, execution of the program, student perspectives regarding the learning experience, and views of the students and faculty regarding the program.

My particular strengths include curriculum development, program evaluation, and distance education.