Faculty

About the Pre-Conference and Keynote Speakers

Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a nurse and health care economist. He is the Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies, the Institute for Medicine and Public Health, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Prior to becoming the Center's Director in 2007, Dr. Buerhaus served as the Senior Associate Dean for Research at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (2000-2006). Before coming to Vanderbilt University, Dr. Buerhaus was Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard School of Public Health (1992-2000), where he developed the Harvard Nursing Research Institute and its post-doctoral program in nursing health services research. During the 1980s, he served as assistant to the chief executive officer of the University of Michigan Medical Center's seven teaching hospitals (1983-1986) and assistant to the Vice Provost for Medical Affairs, the chief executive of the medical center (1987-1990). Dr. Buerhaus was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 1994 and elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in 2003. He is co-author of The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends, and Implications (2008) and a member of the Nursing Economic$ Editorial Board. Dr. Buerhaus is well known for his studies and publications focused on the nursing workforce in the United States.

Anita Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN, is a nurse researcher and professor of nursing from California who specializes in perinatal ethics. She has a nurse practitioner master's degree, a doctorate, and a certificate in ethics consultation. She has published extensively and serves as ethics editor for Pediatric Nursing journal, writes a column in Advances in Neonatal Care, and reviews for eight other nursing and medical journals. She is the past president of the Nurses Subsection of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, on the board of the National Perinatal Association, a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, past president of the Sonoma State Sigma Theta Tau chapter, and a member of the Johnson and Johnson Maternal Child Leadership Institute. Anita serves on the 10-member ANA Council of Ethics and Human Rights that writes the Code of Ethics for Nursing. She is an ethics co-chair for a Kaiser Hospital in California.

Michael Grossman, DM, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, is an entertaining speaker who brings vibrant true-life examples to his workshops. His doctorate is in management of organizational leadership, and he has done research on the impact of emotionally difficult patients in health care organizations. Dr. Grossman has over 30 years' experience as a nurse, manager, director of nursing, and clinical specialist. He is a consultant, professor of nursing, and career coach specializing in communication, team building, and leadership development.

Louise D. Jakubik, PhD, RN-BC, is known for her down-to-earth presentation style and her ability to make "hard content seem easy." She is a frequent national speaker on a variety of pediatric nursing topics, including pediatric nursing certification review, pediatric laboratory interpretation, mentoring, and nursing leadership. Dr Jakubik is the president, chief learning officer, and founder of Nurse Builders, a nursing consulting firm specializing in pediatric nursing education and practice. She has helped thousands of nurses become certified as pediatric nurses. She is a pediatric nursing expert, speaker, and author. Her publications include the first book designed to prepare pediatric nurses for taking a pediatric nursing certification examination, "Pediatric Nursing Certification Review." Over 1,000 nurses attend her 2-day Pediatric Nursing Certification Review Course each year.

Janice Selekman, DNSc, RN, NCSN, is a professor at the University of Delaware. A leader in pediatric nursing for 40 years, she is recognized for her expertise in multiple areas, including ADHD and learning disabilities, adolescent high-risk behaviors, and chronic conditions in children. She has won awards for her speaking, her leadership of pediatric nursing organizations, and her publications, most recently the AJN Book of the Year, School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text. She also wrote the certification review books for both pediatric nursing and school nursing.

Donna Weaver, MN, RN, is the Nurse Educator for the Education, Information, and Partnership Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Donna earned her master's degree in nursing at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. Before coming to the CDC in 2000, Donna practiced nursing throughout the U.S. and also in Saudi Arabia. Donna travels throughout the U.S., providing immunization information to health care providers, publishes articles on immunization in nursing literature, and works on a variety of immunization training and education programs at the CDC.