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Nurses and Mentors Linked through Informatics Professional Development Program

Two nursing informatics professionals have been selected by the Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI) to participate in the Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program. Based on competitive criteria, Uba Backonja, PhD, RN, and Alvin D. Jeffery, PhD, RN/APN, were chosen for this exclusive two-year program designed to develop professionals capable of assuming national leadership positions in informatics-related organizations.

ANI and the Nursing Informatics Emerging Leaders Program are jointly sponsored by the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) and HIMSS. The program provides emerging leaders with invaluable mentorship and opportunities to participate in educational industry meetings and events. Each is assigned accomplished mentors to provide dialogue and coaching throughout the process. To succeed in the program, emerging leaders are required to 1) complete a nursing informatics leadership project, 2) attend meetings of the ANI governing directors, 3) participate in the HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, including the Nursing Informatics Symposium, and 4) participate in the AMIA Annual Symposium.

Uba Backonja is an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington Tacoma and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s, master’s and her PhD in Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Backonja will be mentored by Laura Heerman Langford, PhD, RN, Nurse Informaticist at Intermountain Healthcare and Chief Operating Officer of Healthcare Services Platform Consortium in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Patricia Mook, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Informatics Officer of the Inova Health System in Falls Church, Va.

Alvin D. Jeffery is a Medical Informatics Fellow at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, a Nurse Scientist at HCA in Nashville, and an Education Consultant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., his Master of Science in Nursing from Northern Kentucky University and his PhD in Nursing Science from Vanderbilt University. He is currently working toward his Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University.

Jeffery will be mentored by Susan Matney, PhD, RNC-OB, FAAN, FACMI, Medical Informaticist at Intermountain Healthcare; and Bonnie Westra, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School or Nursing and Director of the Center for Nursing Informatics at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing.

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About ANI
The Alliance for Nursing Informatics (ANI), cosponsored by AMIA & HIMSS, advances nursing informatics leadership, practice, education, policy and research through a unified voice of nursing informatics organizations. We transform health and healthcare through nursing informatics and innovation. ANI is a collaboration of organizations that represents more than 5,000 nurse informaticists and brings together more than 30 distinct nursing informatics groups globally. ANI crosses academia, practice, industry, and nursing specialty boundaries and works in collaboration with the more than 4 million nurses in practice today.

About AMIA
AMIA, the leading professional association for informatics professionals, is the center of action for 5,400 informatics professionals from more than 65 countries. As the voice of the nation’s top biomedical and health informatics professionals, AMIA and its members play a leading role in assessing the effect of health innovations on health policy, and advancing the field of informatics. AMIA actively supports five domains in informatics: translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, consumer health informatics, and public health informatics.

About HIMSS
HIMSS is a global voice, advisor and thought leader of health transformation through health information and technology with a unique breadth and depth of expertise and capabilities to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health, healthcare and care outcomes. HIMSS designs and leverages key data assets, predictive models and tools to advise global leaders, stakeholders and influencers of best practices in health information and technology, so they have the right information at the point of decision.

HIMSS drives innovative, forward thinking around best uses of information and technology in support of better connected care, improved population health and low cost of care. HIMSS is a not-for-profit, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with additional offices in North America, Europe, United Kingdom and Asia.