NENIC Board Members 2023 - 2024

President 

1 year

Lynda Powers, MBA, MS, RN-BC is the Director of Clinical Informatics/CNIO at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital (WDH).  Lynda has worked in the Information Systems and Clinical Informatics field for over 21 years, first as a Manager of Applications, then Director of Information Systems and Applications and now in her current position for the past 5 years.  As the Director of Clinical Informatics/CNIO, Lynda led the successful deployment of Mass General Brigham’s eCare (Epic) System as the Program Director in 2019. 

Lynda has been an RN for over 36 years and has worked in many areas of nursing including Medical-Surgical/Telemetry, Cardiac/Pulmonary and Diabetes Rehabilitation and Nursing Education before moving to Information Systems and Clinical Informatics.  She received her Associates Degree in Nursing from NHTI, her BSN from UNH and her MS in Healthcare Administration and MBA in Healthcare Informatics from New England College.  She is Board Certified in Informatics Nursing by ANCC. 

President-Elect

1 Year

open

Past President 

1 year

Andrew Phillips, PhD, RN, is an Associate Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions and a Faculty Nurse Scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Phillips serves as Director of Nursing Research at Spaulding Rehabilitation Network working with nursing staff on clinical quality improvement most recently the impact of hand hygiene technology on compliance, hospital acquired infections and contract tracing during the COVID pandemic.

Dr. Phillips received his PhD in Nursing Informatics and BS in Nursing from Columbia University School of Nursing. He also holds a BA in Economics from Washington University in St. Louis and has worked as a staff nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit at Westchester Medical Center in New York.  He was a pre-doctoral trainee at the Center for Evidence-Based Practice in the Underserved at Columbia University School of Nursing and a co-investigator in the Health Information Technology Collaborative at Weill Cornell Medical College examining the early stages of health information exchange.  Later as a policy advisor, Dr. Phillips examined the application of federal mandates around qualified health information technology on the specific legislation and regulations needed to ensure health data security, compliance and feasibility within a statewide health exchange network.

Prior to entering the practice of nursing and informatics, Dr. Phillips was an actuary and consultant to health and pension benefit plans.

Secretary

1 year

Sue Whetstone is a registered nurse who has been practicing in the field of Nursing Informatics for 23 years. She received a BS in Nursing from Fitchburg State University in 1983 and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration in 2008 from the University of Rhode Island. She attained board certification in Informatics Nursing in 2003 and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, ONL/AONE, HIMSS and NENIC.  She is also certified in Epic November 2021 Clinical Documentation.

She has extensive experience in both clinical informatics and clinical nursing.  She is currently the Director of Clinical Informatics for the Lifespan system in Providence, RI and acted as the Acute Care Project Leader during the big-bang implementation of Epic at Lifespan in 2015. Prior to that role, she was the Administrative Director of Inpatient Surgical Services and Nursing Informatics at Rhode Island Hospital, a Lifespan Partner.    

As a nursing informaticist, she has been involved in a variety of initiatives to improve both patient safety and clinician efficiency, including  implementation of CPOE, BCMA in the inpatient and ambulatory settings,  clinical documentation , a nurse driven heparin protocol, an insulin calculator, and more recently, disaster level documentation.

As a Member at Large, she plans to contribute to NENIC’s mission of enabling nurses to transform healthcare through informatics and will enthusiastically represent NENIC members in whatever capacity the board deems necessary.

Treasurer Past

Treasurer Current

Deb Furlong RN, MS is a  Project Manager in Nursing Informatics at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Ms Furlongs is currently Nursing Director, Informatics. She works with nursing staff on documentation assuring that their workflows are represented in the electronic record. Deb assisted with the implementation of Device Integration of Physiologic Monitors on over 1,000 devices prior to Epic go live. She has continued to provide her device expertise with the integration of Dialysis devices which improved infection control practices and reduced documentation burden in the Dialysis Unit.

Deb represents BWH Nursing on several Mass General Brigham Digital Health committees advising and requesting build in the Epic system. In addition, she works with groups throughout the MGB system on reports to track quality metrics and other process improvement projects.

Ms. Furlong has been a member of Nursing Informatics organizations in the Boston area serving on the Boards as President, Treasurer and on the Program Planning Committee since 1986. She has presented at national and regional informatics meetings as well as guest lecturing at Simmons College and Northeastern University.

Andrea Santos RN, BSN, MSHI holds the position of a Nursing Informatics Strategist at North Shore Medical Center (NSMC), a Partners Healthcare affiliate. She obtained a Bachelors in Science from Salem State University, and a Masters in Health Informatics from Northeastern University.

Ms. Santos is also a Visiting Instructor and Clinical Instructor at Salem State University, School of Nursing, where she has taught for over seven years in the nursing simulation lab, and in Spring 2014 started the first nursing informatics course in the RN to BSN program.  Andrea is currently leading an enterprise initiative for EMR/Acuity system. In addition to her informatics role at NSMC, Andrea has served on the NENIC Education and Development Committee since 2014, and is currently the Director of Membership and Recruitment on the NENIC Board. 

Director of Membership/Recruiting

2 years

Ms. Langmead, has worked in the field of Nursing Informatics for 10 years and prior to that, she worked clinically as a medical surgical nurse. Sarah is certified in Epic Clinical Documentation and Epic Smartforms.

Currently, Sarah works at MassGeneral Brigham, Digital Health eCare as an Application Coordinator.  In her role, she's been involved in a variety of projects such as a Hospital at Home program, Rover (Epic’s mobile device application), medication administration, and most recently infusion pump integration.

Director of Marketing/ Communication

2 years

Ms. Christine Suchecki MSN, RN-BC is currently the Director of Nursing Clinical Services, for Clinical Informatics, Mass General Brigham Digital.   She has broad experience in healthcare information technology over the last 9 years across the Mass General Brigham Healthcare System, starting with implementation through application support, optimization, and expansion of technology and integration in nursing.   Ms. Suchecki has an MSN from Duke University and is Board Certified in Nursing Informatics through ANCC.  Prior to Ms. Suchecki’s entry into to the domain of informatics, she practiced in cardiac step down, holing unit level leadership positions including as resource nurse, nurse preceptor and lead documentation improvement efforts through local practice committee.   Ms. Suchecki has been a NENIC member for many years, and most recently held a member at large position on the board. 

Director of Education/ Development

2 years

Ms. Wolski currently holds the position of Program Director of Informatics for Nursing and Patient Care Services at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.  Initially hired as the Clinical Lead for the implementation of the EHR her role has expanded to Program Director to account for her added responsibilities in the day to day management of clinical systems and end-user support locally.  Wolski has been an RN for more than 30 years, spending the majority of her career in critical care and has held certifications as a critical care RN. She has spent the last 8 years supporting implementation as well as ongoing support of many clinical systems, end users and informatics projects.  She received her Master’s of Nursing from Emmanuel College with a concentration in Education and in the past been an adjunct faculty teaching nursing informatics at Emmanuel College at both the BSN and MSN level.  Wolski is Board certified in Informatics by ANCC. She currently sits on the Board of New England HIMSS as a member of the clinical advisory council whose function is to coordinate continuing education events/sessions for clinical members of NE HIMSS.  Wolski was elected to the Alliance for  Nursing Informatics Governing Directors Steering committee as an at-large member.  Her term runs from June 2020-June 2023.  Wolski is a member of the NENIC Education committee and is interested in continuing to develop quality educational opportunities for all NENIC members.        

Member-at-large

2 years

Ms. Gray received her Master of Nursing, in Informatics, in 2004. Jennifer has been a member of NENIC during that time frame as well. Ms. Gray is quite passionate about healthcare informatics.

Jenifer’s nursing career started in the Med/Surg field advancing to Labor and Delivery for most of my practicing years. Often staffing a resource/charge position. Being an early adopter of advancements of new technology in her unit was ideal. Often filling the role of super user or admin support for electronic documentation. This has brought me to her current position supporting the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Epic system.

With MGB Jennifer has spent the early years managing the Stork team. Ensuring the populations that care for mom/baby during an inpatient admission supported the staff and the patients. Also managed the Behavioral Health go live which required multiple redesigns to meet our unique needs within the MGB network. Ms. Gray maintains build support for these areas, and they continue to thrive.

Jennifer has been selected to become a senior project specialist for our MGB Digital Health Inpatient Team. Through this position she was fortunate to have implemented MyChart Bedside across our organization. With this initiative, over 5 different teams across Digital Health and IS collaborated on the successful implementation meeting the complex needs of each site.

Member-at-large

2 year

Lori Connors is a registered nurse, who has been practicing in the field of Nursing Informatics for 15 years. She received her BS in Nursing from Rhode Island College in 1982 and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration in 2008 from the University of Rhode Island and attained board certification in Informatics Nursing in 2020. She is also certified in Epic May 2022 Orders.  She has experience in both clinical informatics and pediatric clinical nursing and is currently a Clinical Informaticist for the Lifespan system in Providence, RI, and acted as the Orders Project Team Coordinator during the big-bang implementation of Epic at Lifespan in 2015. Before that role, she was the Manager of Nursing Informatics at Rhode Island Hospital, a Lifespan Partner. As a nursing informaticist, she has been involved in a variety of initiatives to improve both patient safety and clinician efficiency.   She is an Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at Rhode Island College since 2008, responsible for clinical education (including computerized documentation, BCMA) and simulation activities. As a Member at Large, she plans to contribute to NENIC’s mission of providing a forum for networking, education, and information exchange for nurses and other healthcare professionals to enhance their professional development and further the nursing informatics profession.   

Member-at-large

1 year 

Deb Furlong's first informatics experience was the part time systems manager of a Clinical Information system, while working as a staff nurse in the Surgical ICU at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center in 1984. She continued to work with one of the earliest versions of  flowsheet-based ICU systems until she obtained a Masters Degree in Nursing Administration with a concentration in Nursing Informatics in 2003. and is also Board Certified in Nursing Informatics.

Deb joined the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2010 as a Nursing Informatics Project Manager initially working on an Acute Care Documentation project and then transitioned in 2015 to the Partners Healthcare Epic implementation.

Ms Furlong is currently Nursing Director, Informatics. She works with nursing staff on documentation ensuring that their workflows are represented in the electronic record. Deb assisted with the implementation of Device Integration of Physiologic Monitors on over 1,000 devices prior to Epic go live. She has continued to provide her device expertise with the integration of Dialysis devices which improved infection control practices and reduced documentation burden in the Dialysis Unit.

Deb represents BWH Nursing on several Mass General Brigham Digital Health committees advising and requesting build in the Epic system. In addition, she works with groups throughout the MGB system on reports to track quality metrics and other process improvement projects.

Ms. Furlong has been a member of Nursing Informatics organizations in the Boston area serving on the Boards as President, Treasurer and on the Program Planning Committee since 1986. She has presented at national and regional informatics meetings as well as guest lecturing at Simmons College and Northeastern University.

Deb has served in many of the NENIC board roles and has expertise with the NENIC Web site and finances and would like to continue working on the board to mentor new board members.

Regional Reps

2 years

Barbara Jones MS, RN-BC (RI)

Lynda Powers MS, MBA, RN  (NH) 

Sandra McPherson DNP, RN-BC CPHIMS (CT)

Martha Vrana-Bossart MSN, RN (ME)

Janis Yannotti RN (VT) 

National Reps

2 years

Mark Sugrue, RN-BC (HIMSS)

Denise Goldsmith, MS, MPH,RN, FAAN (AMIA) 

Paula Wolski MSN, RB-BC (ANI)

Ex-officio Member

Ms. Zielstorff is a living legend in the field of Clinical and Nursing Informatics. We are honored to have her guidance when she is not traveling and exploring the world.

CIN Liaison

Dr. Leslie Nicoll RN, PhD has more than 35 years of experience in nursing and healthcare and has worked in clinical practice, research, and academia. Prior to founding Maine Desk, she worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Muskie School of Public Service and Associate Research Professor, College of Nursing and Health Professions, University of Southern Maine. She has been the Editor-in-Chief of CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing since 1995.