Dr. Drayton-Brooks is currently a Professor of Nursing and Director of both the Family Nurse Practitioner Program and the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at Widener University, School of Nursing.  Dr. Drayton-Brooks has served a 2-term past National Secretary of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF).  Further, service to NONPF included early task force work to identify cultural competencies, Archives Committee (member), and contribution to Advanced nursing practice building curriculum for quality nurse practitioner education.  Most recently, Dr. Drayton-Brooks was appointed in March 2007 by Secretary Leavitt to the National Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice (NACNEP) for a 4-year term.  The Council advises the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Congress on policy issues related to Title VIII programs administered by the HRSA Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing, including nurse workforce supply, education, and practice improvement.

Dr. Debra J. Barksdale is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is certified as both a family and an adult nurse practitioner.  She is also a certified nurse educator and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She is nationally known for work with on issues affecting nurse practitioner education and practice. Dr. Barksdale has over 20 years of NP experience and has been a NP in urgent care, primary care, home care and care of the underserved. She currently practices at the Robert Nixon Clinic for the homeless in Chapel Hill. Dr. Barksdale is currently President-Elect of the prestigious National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF). She is also a Department of Health and Human Services Primary Health Care Policy Fellow and was recently selected for the 2011 cohort for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow program.  Dr. Barksdale’s research focuses on stress, emotions, and cardiovascular disease in Black Americans. Specifically, she explores the relationships among contextual factors, psychological factors, physiological stress responses and blood pressure in Black adults. She currently has a funded National Institute of Health research grant: Hypertension in Black Americans: Environment, Behavior, and Biology. Her current work explores the underlying hemodynamic determinants of hypertension, particularly sleep blood pressure and sleep total peripheral resistance, as well as the cortisol awakening response. She is the only nurse appointed to the Board of Governors for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) which was established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Dr. Marfell has been Chair of Family Nursing for the past 11 years at the Frontier Nursing University.  She is also a member of the Administrative Team at Frontier and provides leadership and vision for strategic planning and decision making. She was a leader in the implementation of the Faculty Practice Program at Frontier and also served as Executive Director for Frontier Nursing Healthcare overseeing operations for four rural health clinices. 

Dr. Kapustin is associate professor, assistant dean for the master’s program at University of Maryland and served as co-director of the adult/gero NP program. She is board certified in advanced diabetes management as an adult NP and maintains a faculty practice at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Baltimore. She received a BSN at Towson University, masters at University of Maryland School of Nursing, and PhD in health policy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Dr. Kapustin has demonstrated progressive leadership advancement since entering academe in 2000, and she has developed valuable skills and expertise in academic administration. She has numerous publications on diabetes management, mentoring, endocrine disorders, NP policy issues and has made 100+ presentations. Dr. Kapustin holds leadership positions in policy/legislation in Maryland, and she has received several awards including AANP NP State Excellence Award (2006), AANP Clinical Abstract Awards (2008, 2010), and was nominated as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (2009).
 

Dr. Lynne Dunphy is the Routhier Chair of Practice and Professor and the Center Coordinator of Rhode Island Center for Nursing Excellence at the University of Rhode Island.  She is charged with nursing workforce issues and is involved in legislative issues at the state level.  She previously oversaw a large graduate nursing program at Florida Atlantic University from 2000 to 2006 as Assistant Dean.  She is co-author of a certification review book for Adult and Family NPs, and she has finished her third edition of Primary Care: The Art and Science of Advanced Practice Nursing.  Dr. Dunphy is currently a RWJ Executive Nurse Fellow.
 

Dr. Finnegan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Systems Science, College of Nursing, University of Illinois (UIC), Chicago.  Over the past 20 years, Dr. Finnegan has led multiple extraordinary initiatives related to NP education, practice, and research. During the 1990s, she developed, secured HRSA funding for, and co-directed a unique and cutting edge problem-based FNP program.   During the past six years at UIC, Dr. Finnegan co-led the task force that developed the UIC DNP program, assumed the PI role on a complex NIH R01 community-based intervention trial aimed at reducing sexually transmitted infections in high risk low income African American women, and developed her own program of research. Dr. Finnegan was the recepient of the 2009 NONPF Outstanding Researcher Award.
 

Dr. Gary Laustsen is an Associate Profesor with Oregon Health & Sciences University and currently practices at the Eastern Oregon University Student Health Center.  He is actively involved in DNP curriculum development and revision and is part of a HRSA grant team for the Rural Health Track for DNPs: Meeting the Health Needs of Oregonians. Dr. Laustsen chairs the Critical and Acute Specialty Care Integrated Learning Community at OHSU. He is the recepient of the 2011 AANP Nurse Practitioner Advocate State Award for Excellence.  Dr. Laustsen has authored/co-authored 25 peer-reviewed drug news columns for The Nurse Practitioner Journal from 2003-2009. He has given APN-related presentations at NONPF Conference (2009, 2010), Nurse Practitioners of Oregon Conference (2010), WIN (2007), Northwest Nursing Education Institute (2008), the Nurse Practitioner Symposium(Keystone, CO 2003), Rural Nursing Conference (1998).  Dr. Laustsen is currently conducting a grant-funded research project surveying the clinical skills of Oregon nurse practitioners.  He previously served as  the co-Chair of the NONPF Faculty Development Committee
 

Dr. Carmen Lopez is the former FNP Program Director at the Univeristy of Puerto Rico.  Dr. Lopez helped to develop the only two programs for FNP in Puerto Rico.  Dr. Lopez served as the President of the Legislative Commission for the PR Nursing College Policy leadership.  She founded and was Chair of the Advance Nurse Section – Professional College of Nursing P.R.; through this section, the role of NP was legally recognized in Puerto Rico since 2001.  She is a member of the Preventive Medicine National Task Force and President of Commission to Review Nursing Law Board of Nursing P.R., and is on the Item Review Committee NSBN.  Dr. Lopez was the first nurse from Puerto Rico selected to participate in the development of NCLEX and was selected to receive State Advocate Excellence Award from the American Academy of Nurse Practitioner during this year.

Dr. Sheila Melander is Professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis where she teaches in the DNP Program, specifically focused on Adult Acute Care NP preparation.  She has served as the Conference Chairperson in NONPF for the annual meeting for the past 3 years, and she was formerly the chair of the Acute Care Special Interest Group.  Dr. Melander was involved in the implementation of one of the early Acute Care NP programs and has been involved in teaching in Acute Care NP programs for over 14 years.  She is a Fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine and also of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
 

Dr. Marva Mizell Price spent five years as the director of the FNP speciality at Duke University. She continues to teach in the FNP program and is Director of Admission for the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program. She has 35 years experience as a certified FNP, maintaining part-time clinical practice in a family planning clinic.  Dr. Price has served more than a decade as a gubernatorial appointee to the State Public Health Commission; collaborating to formulate rules and regulations for public health legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly.   She serves on the Susan G. Komen for the Cure National African American Advisory Council.  Dr. Price served on the NONPF Clinical Doctorate Task Force in 2005-2006 and chaired the NONPF subcommittee on Faculty Qualifications, Faculty Development, and Student Admissions Criteria.
 

Dr. Thomas has been actively involved in NONPF over many years.  Her activities have included: An abstract reviewer for the annual conferences, member of the Education Committee’s Task Force on FNP Standards, a member of the Educational Resources Committee, and a current member of the Curriculum Leadership Committee.  She also currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Program Director SIG. Dr. Thomas has also been actively involved throughout her professional career in advancing quality education via curricular development, redesign, implementation and evaluation of nurse practitioner programs while creating and obtaining necessary financial and human resources for colleagues and students. This has been accomplished through academic appointments as well as numerous requests for curriculum consultations to nurse practitioner programs.