Adrianne E. Avillion, DEd, MSN, RN
Adrianne E. Avillion earned her MS in nursing and a doctorate in adult education from Penn State University. She has over 40 years of experience in the field of nursing professional development and continuing education for nurses. She has published extensively and is a frequent presenter on the specialty of nursing professional development. Her clinical background includes neurology, mental health, medical-surgical, and physical medicine and rehabilitation. Adrianne is the CEO of Strategic Nursing Professional Development, a business that specializes in continuing education for healthcare professionals and consulting services in evidence-based practice and quality improvement.
Loretta Ann Bostic, DNP, MBA, APRN, CRNA
Loretta Ann Bostic is an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who specializes in psychiatric mental health and nurse anesthesia. She has been a registered nurse since 1983. She completed her nurse anesthesia education at Charleston Area Medical Center and her doctoral education and postdoctoral certification at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. Dr. Bostic served on the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Wellness and Peer Assistance committee for over 10 years and is the founding president of the WV chapter of the International Nurses Society on Addictions. She has developed continuing education on substance use disorder, drug diversion, best-practice prescribing for opioids, challenges in chronic pain management, and the prescription opioid abuse epidemic.
Kalyn M. Briggs, PhD, OTR/L
Dr. Kalyn Briggs has been an occupational therapist since 2002, completing her PhD in occupational therapy at Texas Woman's University in 2012. She is Assistant Professor and Academic Fieldwork Coordinator at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana. Dr. Briggs' practice has focused on adults with neurological conditions, particularly stroke rehabilitation and addressing rural healthcare needs of adults with neurological conditions. She also serves as Communications Coordinator for the Academic Education Special Interest Section (AESIS) at AOTA and is a graduate of the AOTA Academic Leadership Institute. She has a passion for teaching and learning in the field of occupational therapy.
Marcy Caplin, PhD, MSN, RN, CNE
Marcy Caplin has been a nurse since 1983, with experience in coronary care, intensive care, cardiac surgery, and cardiac rehabilitation. She is currently an associate professor in nursing at Kent State University and has vast experience publishing, writing, and managing projects for nursing textbooks, online resources, and test-item writing, including Next Generation NCLEX. Marcy earned her RN/MSN from Yale University School of Nursing and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Kent State University.
Dana M. Cox, MA, BSN, RN, CIMI
Dana Cox has been an RN since 1983. She has worked as a nurse in prehospital, emergency, critical care, and pediatrics. Dana is also a credentialed ECSE (early childhood special education) teacher in California. She has provided early intervention services to infants and toddlers with special needs, including survivors of pediatric abusive head trauma, and now works in the area of early childhood professional development. Dana has carried multiple certifications, including Certified Emergency Nurse and Critical Care Registered Nurse. She is endorsed in California as an Infant/Family Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist/Reflective Practice Facilitator.
Leslie R. Crane, EdD, MSN, RN
Leslie Crane has been an RN since 1973. She teaches in the RN, LVN, CNA, and home health aide programs at Santa Rosa Junior College in California. She graduated from Sonoma State University with an MSN and the University of Phoenix with an EdD in educational technology. Her clinical background is primarily in adult critical care. Leslie loves teaching nursing students and "infecting" them with her enthusiasm for the profession, passion for life-long learning, and commitment to a high level of accountability.
Dennis Crean, BA, Staff Writer
Dennis Crean has served as managing editor for Wild Iris Medical Education since 2010 and helped develop hundreds of continuing education courses. He previously worked as an editor and designer for health, educational, and community-based organizations, including the Louisiana Office of Public Health and the California HIV/AIDS Research Program. He holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University.
Heidi J. Crean, DC, MSN, RN, CNL, RNC-OB
Heidi Crean is a nursing instructor in the RN program at Mendocino College in Ukiah, California, where she teaches fundamentals of nursing as well as obstetric and pediatric nursing. She also works as a per diem labor and delivery and postpartum nurse in the Family Birth Center and previously worked in the med-surg department at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley. Heidi earned an MSN with a concentration in clinical nurse leadership from Sonoma State University. Her previous education includes a BS in chemistry and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree.
Bethany Derricott, RN, MSN, BSN
Bethany Derricott is a nurse educator, online instructor, trainer, and consultant. She is a graduate of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University and the MSN program at Walden University. She has served on the nursing faculty at Chamberlain University, West Coast University, and Kent State University. She has taught maternity nursing, community health nursing, trends and issues in nursing, and nutrition. She has also worked in the areas of academic testing and assessment for nursing programs.
Nancy Evans, BS
Nancy Evans is a health science writer and editor with more than three decades of experience in healthcare publishing. She served as senior editor at Mosby/Times Mirror, senior editor in the health sciences division of Addison-Wesley, and senior medical editor at Appleton & Lange. A breast cancer survivor since 1991, she has written and spoken extensively on breast cancer issues. Nancy co-produced the HBO documentary film Rachel's Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer. She is also the co-producer of Children and Asthma, a KQED documentary film, and the documentary Good Food, Bad Food: Obesity in American Children.
Sheree L. Goldman, DNP, MSN, RN, WHNP
Sheree Goldman is an educator and writer with over four decades of clinical experience working with patients and families. Since 2000, her focus has been in forensics, coordinating a community-based program that conducts medical-legal examinations for victims and suspects of violence. She is a sexual assault forensic examiner for adult, adolescent, and pediatric patients and serves on the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council of Monterey County in California.
Elise Gootherts, MA, BSN, RN, PHN
Elise Gootherts started her career as a social worker in 1979. Following her advocacy work at skilled nursing facilities, she earned a BSN from Dominican University in San Rafael, CA. As a nurse, Elise worked in emergency, public health, and surgery. After completing a master's degree in counseling psychology at Meridian University in Petaluma, CA, she worked as a case manager at an acute care hospital, becoming the department director, with oversight of discharge planning and utilization review, and started the hospital's palliative care program. Elise currently works as a hospice nurse case manager and teaches is on the board of a palliative care agency, Madrone Care Network.
Persis Mary Hamilton, EdD, MSN, BSN, PHN, PMHN
Persis Hamilton has a rich background in nursing, nursing education, and writing. She has written 14 nursing textbooks for two major publishers. Now retired, Persis taught for more than 40 years in vocational, associate, baccalaureate, and graduate nursing programs, served as item writer for the League for Nursing, and was the principle speaker at numerous CE workshops. She has also conducted research in Micronesia and Guam. She is the former Lead Nurse Planner for Wild Iris Medical Education.
Michael Jay Katz, MD, PhD
Michael Jay Katz earned his PhD and MD from Case Western Reserve University. He taught anatomy, physical diagnosis, and scientific writing in the medical school there for more than twenty-five years. He has written more than a dozen books and nearly 100 papers and essays. He has also served as an anatomy and physiology consultant for Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary.
Kathryn Koehne, DNP, RN, AMB-BC, C-TNP
Kathryn Koehne, DNP, RN, AMB-BC, C-TNP, has dedicated over 30 years of nursing practice to telehealth and provided numerous continuing education offerings related to telephone triage. Board certified in ambulatory care nursing and certified in telephone nursing practice, Kathryn has participated in the development of national telehealth standards. She has written the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing’s ViewPoint column “Telehealth Trials and Triumphs” since 2008. Kathryn also serves as educator/consultant with Telephone Triage Consulting, Inc., adjunct faculty at Viterbo University, and telehealth clinical educator at Marquette University.
Maryam K. Mamou, BSN, RN, CWCN, CRRN
Maryam Mamou has extensive experience in wound care. She is a graduate of the wound ostomy and continence program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and is nationally certified in wound and continence care. She has worked in clinical settings including acute care rehabilitation, home health care, long-term care, and outpatient wound care, where the majority of her patients were being treated for diabetic foot ulcers. She has been involved in developing and implementing staff education programs, and she is currently employed as a nurse consultant with the State of Wisconsin.
Christina J. McDaniels, BSN, BA, RN, PCCN
Christina McDaniels has been a licensed RN since 2017. Prior to becoming a nurse, she worked for 10 years as an inpatient and outpatient pharmacy technician. She has bachelors degrees in both English and nursing as well as her Progressive Care Nursing Certification through the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Christina background also includes 4.5 years of staff bedside nursing experience as a direct observation unit, telemetry, and medical-surgical nurse. She has been working full time as a nurse writer since 2022.
Cathy Melter, MSN, RN, CWOCN
Cathy Melter began her nursing career in 1976 and served for over 40 years in adult health. She earned her BSN from California State University, MSN from Samual Merritt College, and WOCN certification from Emory University. Her professional memberships have included the Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses, Wound Ostomy Continence Nurses Society, Sigma Theta Tau, and American Nurses Association of California. Cathy has provided direct care and consulted in the management of patients with chronic wounds, ostomies, and incontinence issues.
Mary C. Mitus, MSN, RN, CCAP
Mary Mitus is an advanced practice nurse, having earned her master's degree in 1988 from Grand Valley State University, Michigan. Mitus spent the first ten years of her career in hospital and home care administration. Since then she has focused on holistic health and computer-based learning. She is a certified clinical aromatherapy practitioner, Reiki master, flower essence practitioner, and health coach. Mitus has designed and taught a variety of programs on such subjects as mind/body health and alternatives to smoking. As the owner of Health Everlasting, Mitus provides holistic health assessments, life coaching, aromatherapy, and energy-based therapies.
Monica A. Nathan, MSEd, BSN, RN, CNOR, CERT-IT
Monica Nathan served as a perioperative nurse and educator in the U.S. Army. Following her military retirement, she became an perioperative nurse and quality assurance coordinator for a freestanding ambulatory surgery center. She is a CERT team member and instructor and a California Disaster Service Worker.
Sheryl M. Ness, MA, BSN, ADN, RN
Sheryl Ness has been an RN since 1985, working in the areas of transfusion medicine, endocrinology, neurology, and oncology. She achieved assistant professor of oncology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and has a master's in transcultural nursing. She has worked for over a decade in the field of oncology education, teaching nurses, allied health staff, and patients. She is published in the Oncology Nursing Forum, the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, and the Journal of Cancer Education. Since 2009, she has written for nursing textbooks and designed curriculum for medical residents, nursing students, and other allied health professionals.
Cherie R. Rebar, PhD, MBA, RN, COI
Cherie R. Rebar has been a licensed RN since 1995. She holds ASN, MSN, MBA, and PhD degrees and post-master's certificates in Family Nurse Practitioner studies and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner studies. Dr. Rebar has taught since 2005 and is a tenured professor of nursing at Wittenberg University, a curriculum designer, and a former director and chair of nursing programs. Her clinical interests and practice include psychiatric mental health, emergency, population, and medical-surgical nursing. She is a published author and editor of the textbook Medical-Surgical Nursing: Concepts for Interprofessional Collaborative Care (10th edition).
Monica M. Roe, DPT, PT
Monica M. Roe holds a doctorate in physical therapy and an MFA in writing, and is currently completing a master's in public health at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has practiced physical therapy since 2005 in various clinical settings around the globe, with a primary focus on remote communities in northwest Alaska. Monica is a longtime disability rights advocate and published researcher, with a recent focus on community-based inclusive development (CBID) and disability-inclusive emergency preparedness planning in regions vulnerable to climate change-related natural disasters. Monica is also a certified beekeeper and a published author for children and young adults.
Judith Swan, MSN, BSN, ADN
Judith Swan has been in the healthcare field for over fifty years, beginning as a medic in the U.S. Air Force. As an RN, she has worked in mental health, emergency, orthopedics, hospice, and medical/surgical. She holds an MSN as a family nurse practitioner. Judith's experience in nursing education includes teaching psychiatric, long-term, and dementia nursing care and as director of a nursing assistant college program. She has written ancillary educational materials for nursing textbooks, curricula for nursing assistant programs, online health articles, and continuing education courses since 2012.
Sheila Wheeler, MSN, RN
Since 1984, Sheila Wheeler has pioneered the field of telephone triage. She is author of the classic training manual Telephone Triage: Theory, Practice and Protocol Development (1993) and editor in chief of the first age-based, 5-Tier Triage, patient-centered guidelines, Telephone Triage Protocols for Pediatric and Adult Populations (1993). In 1994, Ms. Wheeler founded the annual national conference "Telephone Triage: Essentials for Expert Practice." Now retired, she is founder of TeleTriage Systems and a former consultant, expert witness, risk manager, product developer, researcher, and trainer. For more information on her work, visit teletriage.com.
Ryne Wilson, DNP, RN, OCN
Ryne Wilson earned his DNP degree specializing in Health Innovation and Leadership from the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. His nursing career has been in the care of people with cancer, and he has extensive experience in both clinical care and leadership in cancer care programs. He is an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society and has served in several local chapter leadership roles. Ryne is currently an RN Care Coordinator at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Clinic and has academic appointments at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.