Shillam selected for highly competitive national nurse fellowship

Casey Shillam, director of the nursing program at Western Washington University, has been named one of just 20 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows for 2014. She joins a select group of nurses from across the country chosen to participate in the final cohort of this three-year leadership development program bent on enhancing the effectiveness of nurse leaders who are working to improve the U.S. healthcare system.

Shillam is a gerontological nurse, associate professor and founding nursing program director at Western. Her research focuses on supporting care coordination between nurses and other health care professionals to provide high-quality access to chronic care management for older adults. Shillam’s clinical background includes nursing practice in chronic-care and pain management for older adults in home health, assisted living, and long-term/skilled-care nursing. She currently directs the Palliative Care Initiative to transform palliative care in northwestern Washington and support the human responses to living and dying. She also serves as an expert nurse consultant to the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, and serves on the board of directors for the Northwest Organization of Nurse Executives and Emerging Leaders.

Shillam holds a bachelor of arts degree from Portland State University, she and received her bachelor’s in nursing, master’s in gerontological nursing and doctorate in nursing from Oregon Health & Science University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis.

Begun by RWJF in 1998, the Executive Nurse Fellows program strengthens the leadership capacity of nurses who aspire to shape health care in their communities, states and nationally. The program will provide Shillam and her colleagues with coaching, education, and other support to strengthen their abilities to lead teams and organizations working to improve health and health care. The ENF program is located at the Center for Creative Leadership, and co-directed by: Linda Cronenwett, dean emerita and professor at the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and David Altman, PhD, executive vice president and managing director at CCL.

“At this moment, when the role of nurses in providing care and promoting health is expanding and our country’s health care system is being transformed, we need nurse leaders with the strongest skills possible,” Cronenwett said. “The RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program is enhancing the leadership skills of talented nurses all across the country. Our alumni are a virtual ‘who’s who’ of accomplished, prestigious nurses, and we know that Casey and the other members of the 2014 RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows cohort will do a tremendous amount to improve health care and build a culture of health in the United States.”

“I am excited to embark on this fellowship with so many accomplished, expert nurse leaders to support the continued influence of nursing leadership on improving the health of our nation,” Shillam said.

Executive Nurse Fellows hold senior leadership positions in health services, scientific and academic organizations, public health and community-based organizations or systems, and professional, governmental, and policy organizations. They continue in their current positions during their fellowships, and each develops, plans, and implements a new initiative to improve health care delivery in her or his community.

The full list of 2014 RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows—selected from more than 100 applicants—follows:

• Jeffrey Adams, PhD, RN, director, Center for Innovations in Care Delivery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts;
• Aara Amidi-Nouri, PhD, RN, associate professor, chair of the BSN program, and director of diversity, Samuel Merritt University School of Nursing, Oakland, California;
• Debra Arnow, DNP, RN, NE-BC, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska;
• Debbie Chatman Bryant, DNP, RN, director of partnerships for healthcare quality research at Medical University of South Carolina and director of outreach and community relations at Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina;
• Rosina Cianelli, PhD, MPH, FAAN, associate professor, School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida;
• Bonnie Clipper, DNP, MA, MBA, vice president and chief nursing officer, Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland, Colorado;
• Amy Cotton, MSN, FNP-BC, FAAN, director of operations and senior service quality, Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, Bangor, Maine;
• Malia Davis, MSN, RN, director of nursing services and clinical team development, Clinica Family Health Services, Lafayette, Colorado;
• Joy Deupree, PhD, MSN, WHNP-BC, assistant professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, senior advisor for policy for the Nurse Practitioner Alliance of Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama;
• Jeffrey Doucette, DNP, RN, CEN, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital, Newport News, Virginia;
• Kate FitzPatrick, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, nursing clinical director, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
• Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, PMP, chief nursing information officer and manager of nursing informatics, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina;
• Jill Goldstein, RN, MA, MS, vice president, Visiting Nurse Service of New York, New York, New York;
• Darcy Jaffe, MN, ARNP, NE-BC, chief nursing officer and senior associate administrator, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medicine, Seattle, Washington;
• Kathleen Johnson, DNP, RN-BC, NCSN, manager of student health services, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle, Washington;
• Suzanne Miyamoto, PhD, RN, director of government affairs and health policy, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, District of Columbia;
• Teri Pipe, PhD, RN, dean, College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University, Phoenix, Arizona;
• Casey Shillam, PhD, RN-BC, associate professor and nursing program director, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington;
• Elizabeth Stambolis, BSN, MS, CPNP, director of pediatric and adolescent medicine, Health Care for the Homeless, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland; and
• Tami Wyatt¸ PhD, RN, CNE, associate professor, College of Nursing, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee.

The fellowship is supported through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

For more information about the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program visit: www.ExecutiveNurseFellows.org.