Arlene Sperhac graduated from Shadyside Hospital School of Nursing, Florida State University (BSN), the University of Pittsburgh (MN), the University of Colorado Post-Master’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) Program, and the University of Denver (PhD).  She is certified as a PNP by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and National Certification Board of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners) NCBPNP.  She has coordinated the PNP Program at Rush University College of Nursing for the past seven years.

She has extensive experience in curriculum development in her work at the University of Colorado, at The Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions, and at Boston College. At Rush, she developed the PNP program as a master’s program. She served on the graduate curriculum committee for the past four years when revisions were planned and implemented in the DNSc, ND, and MSN programs.  She has done curriculum consultations for colleges of nursing in Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, and Florida. In 2001, she received a research grant from the Association of Faculties of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (AFPNP) to complete her study on using multiple data sources for curriculum revision. She is a CCNE accreditation site visitor.