The NANDA International Board of Directors establishes administrative policies governing the affairs of the Association, develops and implements a strategic plan toward the accomplishment of the Association’s purposes and provides a biennial report to the membership at a regular meeting of the Association.
The Board acts as the custodian of the property, securities and records of the Association, provides for the annual audit of the books of the Association, provides for the bonding of Board officials as it may deem necessary and provides for payment of authorized expenses.
Carme Espinosa i Fresnedo, MSc, BSN, Project Manager – Andorra
President
Carme Espinosa has been involved in NANDA International for many years, and has collaborated as a presenter, committee member, translator, member of the Board of Directors, and currently serves as President of NANDA-I. She was inducted as a Fellow of NANDA International in 2016. She has also served as a member and held board-level positions in the Asociación Española de Nomenclatura Taxonomía y Diagnóstico Enfermero (AENTDE) and the Association for Common European Nursing Diagnoses Interventions and Outcomes (ACENDIO).
Carme’s work has included collaborating on several published articles, chapters, and books – nationally and internationally – on standardized nursling languages and critical thinking. She has collaborated with the team from the University of Iowa both on the Nursing Intervention and Nursing Outcomes Classifications. She has also been the translator the NANDA-I textbook, NANDA International nursing diagnoses: Definitions and classification for three cycles, and is currently translating the European Spanish edition of our upcoming edition.
Her research includes collaboration with several research groups in relation to standardized nursing languages, especially those related to translation and cultural validation of language. Additionally, she has participated in numerous national and international congresses and meetings, presenting papers and in keynote presenter roles. She currently works for Human Resource Development and Training – at Lidera S.L., in Andorra.
Laura Rossi, PhD, RN – USA
President-Elect
Dr. Rossi is committed to the development use and evaluation of nursing diagnosis globally. She first became interested in the concept of nursing diagnosis very early in her professional development. She was mentored by Dr. Marjory Gordon and other nurse leaders from the Massachusetts Conference Group for the Classification of Nursing Diagnosis established shortly after the first St Louis Conference. Over the many years since that time, she has been involved in various NANDA and NANDA-I activities. Most recently, Dr. Rossi has served as the NANDA-I Secretary-Treasurer and was honored as a NANDA-I Fellow at the 2018 Conference.
Dr. Rossi is certified by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as Clinical Nurse Specialist in Adult Health; her clinical practice has focused on care of cardiac patients. She practiced for 24 years at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where she was instrumental in developing many innovative programs to support the use of nursing diagnosis and theory-based practice. During this time, she consulted and lectured extensively on the use of nursing diagnosis for different populations in various venues of the US. As a clinician, she established a collaborative practice with cardiologists using functional health patterns and nursing diagnosis to guide patient care. She has continued to integrate standardized terminology in her work as an administrator, educator and researcher. In recent years, she has shifted her focus to quality and patient safety issues with particular attention to the electronic health record’s impact on nursing documentation and diagnostic accuracy.
Dr. Rossi received a BSN from Northeastern University, an MS in Nursing from Boston University and an MS in Health Services Administration from the Harvard School of Public Health. She earned her PhD in Health Services Research at the Boston University School of Public Health. In 1994, she was elected as a Fellow in the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing. Dr. Rossi is currently an Assistant Professor at Simmons University and holds adjunct appointments at Northeastern University and the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute for Health Professions.
Miriam Rodriguez-Monforte, PhD, RN, RD – Spain
Secretary/Treasurer
Dr. Miriam Rodriguez-Monforte is currently an Associate Professor of Community Nursing and also the Clinical Placements’ Coordinator at the Blanquerna School of Health Sciences-Ramon Llull University, in Barcelona, Spain. Her clinical background is in community nursing. She has developed her clinical expertise in different Primary Health Centers in Barcelona, including adult and children’s’ health. She holds a master’s degree (2012) and a PhD (2017) from the University of Barcelona on Food, Nutrition and Metabolism. She was a pre-doctoral student at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Canada (2016).
Dr. Miriam Rodriguez-Monforte is also a researcher at the Global Research on Wellbeing research group (GRoW) at the Blanquerna School of Health Sciences-Ramon Llull University, as well as at the Lifestyle Research Group in the Foundation University Institute for Primary Health Care Research Jordi Gol i Gurina in Barcelona, Spain. Her research curriculum is configured in three basic pillars. A first pillar encompasses relevant aspects for the nursing profession. Consequently, she participates in different projects on standardized professional languages, nursing leadership, educational innovation and in several international studies that focus on the analysis of the needs of the population considered fragile, as well as the analysis of the role of the nursing professionals in charge of their care. Additionally, and combining the approach of community nursing and that of human nutrition and dietetics, she has participated in the analysis of the relationship between different cardio-metabolic diseases and habitual dietary patterns. The third pillar in the researcher’s trajectory incorporates the life-course approach, considering the community and global perspective for the analysis of the different vital moments in the development of behaviors related to health. Specifically, the transition from adolescence to adulthood, the work to retirement transition and the transition of nursing students to the professional world.
Camila Takáo Lopes, PhD, RN, FNI – Brazil
Director of Diagnosis Development
Camila is an Adjunct Professor at Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil, where she teaches nursing fundamentals to undergraduate students and advises master’s and doctoral students. She has clinical experience in cardiology and adult intensive care. She participates in a strong research group in her university, and has published numerous articles on standardized nursing language and cardiology in international journals. She is a co-editor of the upcoming edition of NANDA International nursing diagnoses: Definitions and classification, 2021-2023.
Camila has served as a volunteer for NANDA-I since 2010, including as a member of the Diagnosis Development Committee and a coordinator of the Brazilian NANDA-I distance learning program, PRONANDA. She was inducted as a NANDA-I Fellow in 2018, and appointed as the Director of Diagnosis Development in January of 2019. She serves the Board of Directors in an ex officio role.
Susan Gallagher-Lepak, PhD, RN – USA
Director of Education & Clinical Innovation
Dr. Gallagher-Lepak is currently Professor and Dean of the College of Health, Education, and Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. She has served on the Education Committee for NANDA International, becoming Director of Education and Clinical Innovation in 2018. Susan has presented seminars on behalf of NANDA-I, focusing on teaching strategies and clinical innovation at our conferences, and at invited seminars, most recently in Romania.
Susan’s research has primarily focused on virtual/on-line learning and its effects on faculty development, and student perceptions of e-learning. She was the Principal Investigator on a grant to develop an application for tablets that linked nursing assessment to diagnosis, for use with students and clinical nurses (NurScope).
Christine Spisla, DNP, RN – USA
Director of Informatics
Christine Spisla has 20+ years of clinical experience in various Women’s Health clinical areas including high risk Labor & Delivery, Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and Colposcopy and Laser. Her electronic health record (EHR) implementation experience includes end-user training and on-site implementation support of EpicCare Inpatient, workflow analysis and redesign, build and applications analyst for Epic Ambulatory. Ms. Spisla is a former Clinical Editor for SNOMED CT, providing terminology management and coordinating new concept requests. She actively participated in the SNOMED Nursing and Anaesthesia Work Groups to apply SNOMED CT editorial policies to their terminology projects and needs. She created and delivered SNOMED CT education via nationwide webinars and has published and presented on nursing terminology standards and clinical data quality nationally and internationally.
Ms. Spisla has worked with prominent quality measure developers, helping them understand the role of clinical reference terminologies and clinical workflows for electronic quality measures development. She helped develop clinical data best practices for clinical documentation improvement projects in preparation for Meaningful Use, electronic quality measure specifications and clinical data analytics. Ms. Spisla was an invited participant in standards initiatives; American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists Revitalize project and Vital Records Vocabulary Committee for Prenatal Care (CDC), as well as providing SNOMED CT subject matter expertise for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) antepartum profiles. She has extensive experience mapping client terminology to SNOMED CT, LOINC and ICD-10-CM. After joining Deloitte, Ms. Spisla has focused on healthcare compliance and clinical data quality. She holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Loyola University Chicago. Her Doctoral thesis focused on the use of healthcare information technology for continuity of care for chronic disease and the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patient populations following a disaster.
Silvia Caldeira, PhD, RN – Portugal
Director of Research
Dr. Sílvia Caldeira is Assistant Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa (UCP), Lisbon, a position she held since 2013. She is an integrated researcher of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Health and coordinator of the Ph.D. in Nursing at UCP, in Lisbon, since May of 2019. Her clinical background is in adult intensive care from 2000 to 2006, and in pediatrics and neonatal intensive care from 2006 to 2008. Master’s degree in Bioethics (2008) and Ph.D. in nursing in 2013. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, in 2005.
She was elected as a member of the Diagnosis Development Committee of NANDA-I in 2014, and has been a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Nursing Knowledge since September of 2019. Sílvia was the first coordinator of the NANDA-I Portugal Network Group. As a doctoral student supervisor, she leads research concerning nursing diagnoses validation in different population and based on different methods, such as, development of complex interventions, Q methodology, longitudinal research, methodological research, mixed methods, surveys, qualitative, RCT and evidence synthesis (scoping review, systematic review, qualitative synthesis). In fact, studying nursing diagnoses and different strategies to improve the NANDA-I classification is one of the main goals of this group, which is research driven and whose outputs include several chapters, books, papers and communications, particularly about spiritual distress, resilience, spiritual coping, hope, spiritual comfort, spiritual care, and forgiveness.
Serving as research director of NANDA-I provides Sílvia with the opportunity to continue contributing to the development of the taxonomy, seeking the best evidence and strategies to revise diagnoses, aiming for their effective transfer to informatic systems and clinical practice.
T. Heather Herdman, RN, PhD, FNI, FAAN – USA
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Herdman is the Chief Executive Officer of NANDA International. She has served as a member, Chair and Co-Director of the Diagnosis Review Committee/Diagnosis Development Committee, and is a former President of the Association. Heather is the editor/co-editor of the past four editions of the nursing textbook, NANDA International Nursing Diagnoses: Definitions and Classification. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications related to clinical reasoning and nursing diagnosis, and is an international speaker. Heather was in the founding class of NANDA-I Fellows, and is a recipient of the NANDA-I Mentor Award.
Heather received tenure from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay, and taught at two undergraduate and graduate programs in Wisconsin. She has served as an advisor and committee member of several master’s and doctoral students, in the USA and Brazil. Her research interests include clinical reasoning, nursing diagnosis, spirituality, and integrative health care, and she is a Clinical Herbalist. Heather serves the Board of Directors in an ex officio role.
Dorothy A. Jones, Ed.D., RNC, ANP, FAAN – USA
Director, The Dr. Marjorie Gordon Program for Knowledge Development and Clinical Reasoning
Dorothy A. Jones, Ed.D., ANP, FAAN, has retired as a professor at the Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, where she formerly served as Chair of the Adult Health Department from 1995 to 1999. She is a senior nurse scientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and former president of the Eastern Nursing Research Society. She has been involved in nursing language development serving as past president of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. Dottie’s research includes a NIH-funded study focusing on patients’ recovery at home following ambulatory surgery, theory development related to Margaret Newman’s Health as Expanding Consciousness, evaluation research, and instrument development.
Her many awards include Boston College’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2005, Partners Award for Excellence in Practice in 1998 and 2003, the Indiana University School of Nursing Outstanding Alumni Award, and the Sigma Theta Tau International Founders Award in 2000. She was named a Living Legend by the American Nurses Association Massachusetts in 2017. Dottie has a strong record of curriculum development and mentorship with graduate students, as evidenced by their scholarship nationally and internationally. She received her B.S.N. from Long Island University and Brooklyn Hospital School of Nursing in Brooklyn, New York, and earned graduate degrees from Indiana University and Boston University.
Dottie is a former board member and past-president of NANDA-I, is a recipient of the NANDA-I Mentor Award, and was in the founding class of NANDA-I Fellows. She is currently the Director of the Marjory Gordon Program for Knowledge Development and Clinical Reasoning at Boston College, established in partnership with NANDA-I and the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College. In this role she oversees and mentors participants of the International Gordon Fellows Program, supports online educational programming and our biennial conference. She serves the Board of Directors in an ex officio role.