Newswise — AACN Certification Corporation announces its leadership for fiscal year 2015, with terms effective July 1, 2014.

Mary Frances Pate, RN, PhD, CNS, leads the board as chair during her sixth year of service on the AACN Certification Corporation national board. She will serve a two-year term through June 30, 2016.

Pate is an associate professor at University of Portland School of Nursing in Oregon. She held prior academic appointments at University of Alabama School of Nursing, Birmingham, and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing in Portland. After beginning her nursing career as a staff nurse in Alabama, she worked as a clinical nurse specialist at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Birmingham, and at OHSU.She continues to serve on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal AACN Advanced Critical Care, a position she’s held since 2004.

AACN Certification Corporation — the credentialing arm of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) — promotes and enhances consumer health and safety through certification and certification renewal. It has certified more than 85,000 nurses and provides comprehensive credentialing for establishing and maintaining standards of excellence in acute and critical care nursing.

AACN Certification Corporation develops and administers the CCRN, PCCN, CCRN-E, CCRN-K, ACNPC, ACNPC-AG, CCNS, ACCNS-AG, ACCNS-P and ACCNS-N specialty exams, and the CMC and CSC subspecialty exams. With the American Organization of Nurse Executives’ Credentialing Center, Washington, D.C., it offers the Certified Nurse Manager and Leader (CNML) exam.

Lisa A. Falcón, RN, MSN, and Theresa M. Wadas, PhD-c, DNP, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, CCRN, join the AACN Certification Corporation board as directors for a three-year term through June 30, 2017.

Falcón is nursing director of the adult and pediatric trauma center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she joined the staff in 1999 as a critical care nurse in surgical critical care and transitioned to a clinical nurse educator and administrator. With a focus on improving processes and systems for patients, nurses and the healthcare team through communication, relationship building and education, she has presented on a variety of topics, including process improvement.

Wadas is an assistant professor in the graduate program at University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing in Tuscaloosa with an expertise in cardiovascular and critical care practice. She continues to practice as an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) and counsels organizations nationally in developing the ACNP role in their organizations, including role responsibilities, reimbursement and outcomes.

Ilia M. Rolόn begins a three-year term as consumer representative to the AACN Certification Corporation board of directors through June 30, 2017.

Rolόn has more than 20 years of experience working to identify and address unmet needs among the poor and medically underserved in Southern California. She currently is director of Strategic Development at CalOptima, which administers nearly all Medi-Cal benefits in Orange County, where she specializes in countywide initiatives such as local implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

AACN has appointed Linda Bay, RN, MSN, ACNS-BC, CCRN, PCCN, and Mary Zellinger, RN, MN, ANP, CCRN-CSC, CCNS, as its representatives to the AACN Certification Corporation board of directors. Each year, two members of the AACN board of directors serve one-year concurrent terms on the AACN Certification Corporation board.

Bay has been a clinical nurse specialist at Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee since 2008, working primarily in progressive care areas. She previously served the hospital as an ICU staff nurse for nearly 20 years, as well as a nurse educator for high acuity and acute care units.

For the past 35 years, Zellinger has worked as a clinical nurse specialist and clinical coordinator in cardiovascular services at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. She first joined the hospital staff in 1979 as a staff nurse.

Also serving on the AACN Certification Corporation board are Dana Woods, AACN chief executive officer, and the following officers and directors: • Secretary/Treasurer and Director Sonia Astle, RN, MS, CCRN, CNRN, CCNS, clinical nurse specialist, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia• Director Karen S. Kesten, DNP, APRN, CCRN, CNE, PCCN, CCNS, director of educational innovations at American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, D.C., and part-time associate professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, Washington, D.C. • Director Milisa Manojlovich, RN, PhD, CCRN, associate professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: Founded in 1969 and based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. AACN joins together the interests of more than 500,000 acute and critical care nurses and claims more than 235 chapters worldwide. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution. www.aacn.org; facebook.com/aacnface; twitter.com/aacnme

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