NENIC Board Members 2024-2025

Position	Term	Background/Interest
President	1 year	Sue Whetstone is a registered nurse who has been practicing in the field of Nursing Informatics for 26 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 and NENIC. She is also certified in Epic May 2024 Clinical Documentation. She has extensive experience in both clinical informatics and clinical nursing. She is currently the Director of Clinical Informatics for the Brown University Health system (formerly Lifespan) in Providence, RI, and acted as the Acute Care Project Leader during the big-bang implementation of Epic at Lifespan in 2015. Before 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 the implementation of IV Pump Device Integration, CPOE, BCMA in the inpatient and ambulatory settings, nurse-driven heparin, and insulin calculators, and more recently, initiatives to improve capacity management and medication reconciliation. Sue joined the NENIC board initially as a Member-at-Large and has served as NENIC Board Secretary for the past 2 years. As President she will continue to contribute to NENIC’s mission of enabling nurses to transform healthcare through informatics and will enthusiastically lead the organization.
President-Elect	1 Year	Lori Connors is a registered nurse, who has been practicing in the field of Nursing Informatics for 17 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 and Epic Grand Central 2023. She has experience in both clinical informatics and pediatric clinical nursing and is currently a Clinical Informaticist for the Brown University Health 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 Brown University health 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 the new President Elect, 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.
Past 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.
Secretary	1 year	Laurie Diggins is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare field, including 20 years focused on clinical and financial system rollouts and project management. A passionate advocate for Nursing Informatics, Laurie has built a career around improving healthcare through data integrity, system integration, process improvement, and regulatory compliance. Currently serving as the Senior Quality Program Manager at Catholic Medical Center, Laurie analyzes workflows, develops functional specifications, and manages complex multi-departmental projects to enhance productivity and quality across healthcare services. She works closely with regulatory bodies and data collection vendors to ensure compliance with healthcare regulations while driving system enhancements. Throughout her career, Laurie has held a variety of leadership roles, including Senior Information Systems Regulatory and Compliance Program Manager and Director at Healthcare Integration Technology Network 4 Health, where she managed technology implementations to support population health strategies and DSRIP 1115 waiver requirements. With a background in clinical nursing, Laurie also has extensive experience in managing nursing staff and patient care services in ICU, Labor and Delivery, Emergency Medicine, and Trauma. Her IT expertise extends to healthcare IT solutions, revenue cycle management, and IT strategic planning, and she has been involved in client relations, project scoping, and budgeting through her tenure at Allscripts and Vitalize Consulting Solutions. Laurie holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Informatics, with certifications including, PMP, and CPHQ certification. She is an active member of several professional organizations, including ANNA, ANIA-CARING, ENA, and HIMSS, and has been recognized with the HCPRO Award for Image of Nursing, Todays Nurse 2025 and served as a speaker at the ANCC Magnet Conference. Staying Loyal to her title of Nurse Laurie also works as a hospice nurse for Brookhaven Hospice.
Treasurer Current		Andrea Santos is a Platform Architect at Mass General Brigham Digital, where she supports medication administration, behavioral health nursing, OB/newborn/NICU nursing, and health professionals. Prior to her current role, Andrea led the implementation of patient acuity and nursing workload measurement through transparent classification across Mass General Brigham. Andrea earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Salem State University and a Master of Health Informatics from Northeastern University. Before transitioning to informatics, she practiced in the intensive care unit and interventional radiology, and served as a visiting instructor and clinical instructor at Salem State University's School of Nursing.
Director of Membership/Recruiting	2 years	Elizabeth Bryand has been a nurse at Lifespan in Rhode Island for the past 15 years. As a staff nurse at The Miriam Hospital, she joined the Nursing Informatics Council in 2010 and slowly increased her responsibilities on the council. Around 2014 she began representing the hospital as the informatics nurse, helping to troubleshoot user suggestions and/or issues, providing input on new workflows and rolling out new initiatives. She became certified in informatics through ANCC in 2015 and maintains that certification. In 2017 she transferred to Newport Hospital and is currently working as the informatics nurse position within the nurse education department. She has enjoyed attending the NENIC Trends Symposium for many years and has had an active role with poster presentations.
Director of Marketing/ Communication	2 years	Brenda Engelkemier, MSN, RN, NI-BC, CPHIMS is a Clinical Specialist with MDClone. She obtained her MSN in Informatics from Walden University and Board Certification in 2017. She is currently a member of NENIC, HIMSS and ANIA. She has experience in clinical nursing and informatics. Her clinical experience includes practice in critical care, telemetry, and surgical services. Informatics experience over the last ten years supporting and implementing technology for ambulatory, surgery, oncology, and critical access. She supports nursing informatics using clinical knowledge to drive workflows, governance, and integration, improving patient experience, quality, and safety.
Director of Education/ Development	2 years	Paula Wolski, MSN, RN, NI-BC currently holds the position of Program Director of Informatics for Nursing and Patient Care Services at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She 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 (AACN), is board certified in informatics through ANCC, and Certified in Epic clinical documentation since 2015 . In 2015, she led the successful deployment of Mass General Brigham’s eCare (Epic) System as the Nursing Clinician Lead. She has spent the last12 years supporting the implementation of innovative tools as well as ongoing support of many clinical systems, end users and informatics projects. She received her BSN from Northeastern University and Masters 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. Ms. Wolski 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, it is through this relationship that NENIC is able to offer additional CE opportunities to its members. Wolski was elected to American Medical Informatics Associations (AMIA) Nursing Informatics Working Group (NIWG) as a member-at-large, with a term running from Jan 2024 through December 2025. In the past, Wolski was an elected as a member -at-large for the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) from 2021-2023. She has participated in several research projects focused on implementation science and development of a trajectory model for pressure injuries. As part of her commitment to reducing documentation burden she is a member of the AMIA 25 x 5 taskforce working in the impact workstream. This taskforce is charged with reducing documentation burden by 25% within 5 years of onset. Alongside of documentation burden reduction, Wolski is committed to having Nursing’s voice be heard as we move to the next innovation in healthcare, AI. As the Director of Education and Development for NENIC, she is committed to bringing to our members the latest offerings for education to keep them up to date with informatics content and its impact on care delivery.
Member-at-large	2 years	Julie Murphy, PhD, MBA, RN, CPHQ is a Sr. Clinical Quality Improvement Specialist in the Department of Clinical, Education, Informatics, Practice, and Quality at Boston Children’s Hospital. She worked clinically in pediatric critical care and developed curiosity around issue identification and process improvement. Julie is interested in nursing documentation burden, utilizing electronic health record data to capture nursing quality and value, and utilizing technologies to increase nursing efficiencies. Ms. Murphy completed her PhD in Nursing in 2022 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her dissertation focused on the connection between nursing quality metrics and patient experience scores.
Member-at-large	2 year	Anne Burgess, MSHI, BSN, RN, CCRC, is the Associate Director of Nursing Informatics at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), where she has been a vital team member since 2018. With a robust background in clinical nursing and health informatics, Anne is key in utilizing technology to enhance patient care and streamline nursing workflows for both adult and, and more recently, pediatric populations. Her dedication to advancing nursing practices through innovative informatics solutions ensures that both patients and healthcare professionals’ benefit from the latest technological advancements. Anne holds a Master of Science in Health Informatics and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Northeastern University, along with a diploma in Nursing from the New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing. Prior to her role at DFCI, she was a Clinical Content Lead at Partners eCare and served as the Program Manager in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Her extensive experience and leadership in healthcare informatics continues to drive improvements in patient care and nursing efficiency at DFCI. Anne has been an active member of the New England Nursing Informatics Consortium (NENIC) for many years and is excited to join the Board of Directors as a Member at Large, where she looks forward to contributing to the advancement of nursing informatics in the region.
Member-at-large	2 year	Ms. Furlong has a Master’s Degree in nursing administration from Northeastern University and was Board Certified in Nursing Informatics in 2020. Deb has been a member of Nursing Informatics organizations in the Boston area serving on the Boards of Boston Area Nursing Informatics Consortium – BANIC which became NENIC as President, Treasurer and on the Education and Development Committee since 1991. She is currently a member at large. She has presented at national and regional informatics meetings as well as guest lecturing at Simmons College and Northeastern University. Ms. Furlongs most recent experience was Nursing Director, Informatics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Prior to that she was employed at the Boston VA Healthcare System as a systems manager for ICU clinical information systems for 35 years. Her clinical background was as a Senior staff nurse in the Surgical ICU. The computer system that Deb implemented at the VA in the late 1980’s was donated to the Smithsonian Institution as an example of the first bedside clinical information system. Her expertise includes, flowsheet clinical documentation, reporting, device integration and nursing focused implementations of solutions to improve nurses’ workflows. Deb continues to support the NENIC board with her expertise of the NENIC web platform, financial requirements and providing historical knowledge of the NENIC organization.
Regional Reps	2 years	Mary K Kennedy MSN, RN, NI-BC (RI) Tracey Adams MSN, RN, NI-BC (NH) Sandra McPherson DNP, RN-BC CPHIMS (CT) Martha Vrana-Bossart MSN, RN (ME) Open (VT)
National Reps	2 years	Mark Sugrue, RN-BC (HIMSS) Denise Goldsmith, MS, MPH,RN, FAAN (AMIA) Paula Wolski MSN, RB-BC (ANI) Andy Phillips, PhD, RN, FACMI (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.