Annual Meeting & Conference

Dr. Peter Buerhaus is a nurse and a healthcare economist who is well known for his studies on the nursing and physician workforces in the United States. He is a Professor of Nursing and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at the College of Nursing, Montana State University. Before coming to Montana State University, Dr. Buerhaus was the Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing and Sr. Associate Dean for Research at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Professor of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University, and assistant professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health. He served as assistant to the chief executive of the University of Michigan’s 7 teaching hospitals and to the Vice Provost for Medical Affairs at the the University of Michigan. He has published 160 peer-reviewed articles, with five publications designated as “Classics” by the Federal Government’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Dr. Buerhaus was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1994, elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in 2003 (now the National Academy of Medicine), and is an honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Dr. Buerhaus has been awarded honoray doctorates from the University of Maryland and from Loyola University, Chicago. In 2010, Dr. Buerhaus was appointed Chair of the National Health Care Workforce Commission that was created under the Affordable Care Act to advise Congress and the Administration on health workforce policy. He recently served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Medicine Committee on the Future of Nursing, 2020-2030.

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Helene Burns, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, is Senior Vice President & Chief Nursing Officer
of Clinical Services at Jefferson Health in New Jersey. In this role since 2013, Dr. Burns led her organization to receive its first Magnet Designation® in 2018.

Dr. Burns has overall responsibility for patient care services and nursing operations at the multi-hospital New Jersey division of Jefferson Health, with oversight of its more than 1,400 RNs and Department of Nursing staff. Dr. Burns has direct oversight of patient safety as it relates to nurse-sensitive indicators, e.g., patient fall rates, readmission rates, catheter-associated urinary track infections, blood stream infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia rates, sepsis rates, and pressure ulcer rates. She collaborates with the medical staff and administrative teams leading High Reliability initiatives as they relate to patient safety.

An inspiring and engaged leader, Dr. Burns has championed many key initiatives linking patient and employee satisfaction, including leading a healthy work environment nursing council with clinical nurses; infusing shared governance councils within the organization; and improving nurse communication through nursing hourly rounds and beside communication initiatives. She also implemented several nursing retention initiatives, including Nurse Intern, Nurse Residency, and Nurse Mentorship programs. Dr. Burns has jointly led initiatives with two hospital administrators to design new patient towers with clinical staff putting design input.
Dr. Burns serves as president of ONL NJ, and she will be the master of ceremonies for the conference

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EDNA CADMUS PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Edna is currently the Executive Director for the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing. This Center serves as the nursing workforce center for the state. Since 2010, she serves as a co-lead for the New Jersey Action Coalition which is one of 51 national coalitions across the country implementing the Institute of Medicine recommendations. Prior to July of 2010 she was the Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in NJ for 16 of her 22 years at the medical center, achieving Magnet designation 3 times.
She is the past president of the Organization of Nurse Executives of New Jersey. She is a commissioner and chair for the ANCC pathway to excellence program. She has received numerous awards for leadership.
She has received multiple grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused on academic progression. Previously she has been the co-PI for a CMS funded grant for $1.6 million for a nurse residency program for Long Term Care and currently serves as a PI for a grant for $4.7 million from the Helene Fuld Trust to implement residency programs in out of hospital settings and the NJDOL GAINS Grant for acute care hospital residency programs.
She graduated from William Paterson University where she received her BSN. Edna received her Masters in Nursing Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York and her Doctorate from Adelphi University in Long Island, New York. She is a Wharton fellow, Class of 2003 and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing since 2012.

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Laura Mularz, DNP, MSN, RN, APN, ACNS-BC, NE-BC

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Based in Trenton, New Jersey, Capital Impact Group (CIG) is a bipartisan government affairs firm that advocates for its clients at all levels of government. With a focus on healthcare, CIG represents clients’ interests on legislative, permitting and rulemaking matters. The firm is comprised of former public officials, agency professionals, and communications experts with an intimate knowledge of government and access to key decision makers in every realm of public policy. CIG Principal Gene Mulroy and his team have represented ONL, and formerly ONE, for more than a decade.

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Nina Raoji, DNP, MSN, RN, APN-C

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Dorothy Rolling, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, NE-BC

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Pippa White turned to solo performing after an extensive career in theatre and television on the West Coast.
She calls her One’s Company Productions “part theatre, part storytelling, part history.” Audiences call them unique, captivating and touching.
She has crisscrossed the country many times, touring to 32 states, including California, New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida, Connecticut and even Alaska. She has performed at universities, performing arts centers, conferences, museums and festivals.
An audience member recently described her work as, “performances that are entertainment wrapped in history intertwined with inspiration.”

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Leslie Wright-Brown has been the Director for Diversity and Inclusion at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center since 2017. She has been a nurse for over 35 years. She began her nursing career in the United States Air Force Nurse Corps and was honorably discharged at the rank of captain. She received her undergraduate degree from Seton Hall University, and her Masters of Science in the Adult Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Subrole from Rutgers, The State University. She is certified by the ANCC in Nursing Professional Development, and effective October 2021, is the Diversity Task Force chairperson for the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD). In addition, Leslie is also the PhD student representative on the Rutgers School of Nursing Anti-Racism/Anti-Bias Task Force.
Leslie is a PhD in Nursing Candidate at Rutgers University. Her research interests include racial stereotyping and health inequities. She is the mother of three girls, two of whom are twins at the Rutgers New Brunswick campus. One of her most humbling, yet rewarding parenting experiences thus far has been walking outside after leaving a class, and hearing someone run up behind her saying, “Hey everybody, this is my mom!”

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Penny Zenker is an interactive motivational speaker, business strategy coach and best-selling author of The Productivity Zone: Stop the Tug of War with Time. She is passionate about helping people live more fulfilling lives through reducing stress, improving communication, and creating greater meaning and clearer focus. Penny's expertise is derived from building and selling a multi-million-dollar business, living abroad for 16 years, managing business turnarounds, and later working to double business growth for businesses as a strategic business coach with Business Breakthroughs, a Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes company.

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