ANA Innovation Lounge
Are you a nurse interested in innovation? Join these interactive conversations designed to create a space for nurses to expand their thinking about the profession and health care, with a focus on innovation. Connect with nursing colleagues and leaders to enhance your skills, get motivated, and build upon your personal confidence.
- Meet nurses who are leading innovative efforts
- Engage in real-time networking around all aspects of nursing innovation
- Join a supportive environment working to accelerate innovation
- Learn from people who are driving conversations around nursing and health care
2023 ANA Innovation Lounges

Care Where You Live: How Nurses Are Leading the Mobile Care Revolution
June 21, 2023, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. ET
Mobile care is revolutionizing how health care is coordinated, accessed, and delivered. In North Carolina, KaSheta Jackson is the architect behind community pop-ups. Barbara Chapman crisscrosses Texas in a motor home to provide care for underserved populations, and in Alabama, Emily Bentley, along with her nursing students are providing mobile health units for rural communities.
In this lounge, you will gain fresh perspectives on preventative health care services and learn how mobile care is meeting the needs of patients outside of traditional clinical settings. Our panel of nursing experts will discuss how mobile care strategies are improving health equity and providing long-term sustainable solutions to address the social determinants of health.
Speakers:
Emily Bentley, DNP, FNP-C, AGACNP-BC, is Director for Clinical Affairs and Assistant Professor at the University of South Alabama College of Nursing. Her nursing career focuses on working with medically underserved patients, leading interdisciplinary care teams, advancing nursing education, developing academic-clinical partnerships, and advancing nursing leadership roles. Dr. Bentley is the project director for a HRSA-funded grant project titled Nursing Research and Education to Advance Culturally-aligned Healthcare (Nursing REEACH). The project focuses on training nurses to become leaders in promoting health equity and addressing social determinants of health in the mobile health care environment.
Barbara Chapman is an Assistant Clinical Professor and Lead Faculty in the Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner programs at the University of Texas at Tyler.
She has been a nurse for over 35 years and has practiced as a Family Nurse Practitioner for over 9 years at the Community Health Care Clinic focusing on providing care to the uninsured and medically underserved population at 200% or below the poverty level. She has also practiced as a Family Nurse Practitioner on “The INTUNE Mobile Unit” and volunteered with “The Health Wagon” in West Virginia providing mobile health care to rural and underserved populations throughout coal country. In 2022, she received the Texas Nurse Practitioners Presidential Award for her service and dedication to the profession.
Dr. KaSheta J. Jackson, DNP, MSN, RN
Vice President of Health Equity and Social Impact
ECU Health
KaSheta J. Jackson, DNP, MSN, RN, a native of Greenville, North Carolina, serves as the Vice President of Health Equity and Social Impact at ECU Health. In her role, Dr. Jackson uses data to drive change, quality improvement, and community engagement and equity. Her research interests include the nurse's role in health disparities, equity of care, nurse recruitment strategies, social drivers of health, and rural health care. She is the 2022 recipient of the ANA Innovation Individual Nurse Award, sponsored by Stryker, for her work on community pop-ups.

Nurse Engineers: Building What Healthcare Really Needs
September 20, 2023, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. ET
Nursing should be recognized as a STEM discipline. Meet the leaders advancing the science and practice of nursing through engineering, medical technology, and environmental health. Nurses are designing and building new products and constructing new paths forward using their unique experiences, practical approaches, and person-centered solutions. Learn how nursing education is shifting to prepare nurses to span industries.
Speakers:
Nancy Downing, PhD, RN, SANE-A, SANE-P, FAAN, teaches in the MSN Forensic Nursing Program and conducts research on the intersections of interpersonal violence, substance use, and trauma and related health outcomes. Many of her state and federally funded projects utilize technology as a tool to address issues related to access to care and the potential for technology to mitigate or prevent adverse health outcomes associated with violence, trauma, and abuse. She is a member of the ANA Innovation Advisory Committee, Vice Chair of the NIST OSAC Forensic Nursing Subcommittee, former President of the International Association of Forensic Nurses, and a member of the Texas Forensic Science Commission. In 2019, she was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing.
With a clinical background in critical care and 25+ years of global experience in the development of new medical products, Dr. Giuliano’s focus is to improve the delivery of care for nurses, and the experience of care for patients and family. Her expertise includes human-centered design and clinical outcomes research. Karen actively contributes to many professional organizations, and works with small, medium, and large companies on medical product development and innovation. Karen enjoys working with frontline caregivers to support research at the point-of-care. In addition, her own interdisciplinary program of research is focused in two main areas: non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia and IV infusion safety using IV smart pumps.
Daniel Oerther, PhD, is internationally renowned for leadership bridging engineers, nurses, and sanitarians to advance environmental health practice through science diplomacy. His passions include environmental issues (built and natural) with expertise in biotechnology and sustainable development. He enjoys a demonstrated track record of success in promoting access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH); food and nutrition security; energy efficiency; and innovation to alleviate extreme poverty. Dr. Oerther’s approach to problems aims to incorporate the 5 Ps—planet, people, prosperity, partnerships, and peace—to meet the needs of today without compromising the future. He iterates design thinking and the scientific method to build up solutions and break down problems employing empathy, creativity, and rationality.

Virtual Care in Hospitals & Homes: Nurses Where You Need Them
October 18, 2023, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. ET
Join us and hear from virtual care nursing leaders who are improving how health care is accessed, delivered, and received. Learn how nurse leaders are driving the momentum of virtual care delivery while reducing costs, improving satisfaction, and improving accessibility. Our speakers are creating virtual care within health care organizations and across health care systems nationally to improve the patient and family experience.
April 2023 Innovation Lounge
Expanding Possibilities: Real-World Solutions for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusions
A diverse group of nursing leaders discuss how they infuse justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles to thoughtfully address the needs of patients, communities, and the planet.
Speakers:
- Dr. Jodi Traver, PhD, RN, NE-BC Nurse Innovator and Educator UC San Diego Health
- Dr. Carol Zeigler, DNP, APRN, NP-C, APHN-BC Professor, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Co-Founder of the Climate, Health, and Energy Equity Lab at the W’Ondry
- Dr. Scharmaine Lawson, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN Innovator, Entrepreneur, and Author
2022 ANA Innovation Lounges
Four lounges were hosted in 2022. If you missed any of the lounges, you can now view them in the videos below.
April 2022 ANA Innovation Lounge
The Nurses of Epidemic Intelligence
Learn from two nurses working as Officers for the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These innovators are securing health and addressing national emergency response efforts. Learn more about their work, national opportunities, and how nursing perfectly positions nurses to lead national and global health.
Speakers:
- Julia Petras, MSPH, BSN, PHN, RN, EIS Officer, CDC
- Dr. Shanna Miko, DNP, MPH, RN, PED-BC, CPN, CCRN-K, EIS Officer, CDC
June 2022 ANA Innovation Lounge
How Listening Like a Poet Heals
Learn how "Listener Poets" from The Good Listening Project (TGLP) are working with nurses to ease emotional burden, process events, and make people's lived experiences visible. They've written thousands of custom poems for nurses and other healthcare workers based on the principle that healing and wellbeing start with feeling heard.
Speakers:
- Frankie Abralind, Executive Director, Good Listening Project
- Matt Brown, RN, Assistant Director, Staff Development, Virginia Hospital Center
- Elle Klassen, Listener Poet, The Good Listening Project
September 2022 ANA Innovation Lounge
Designing Whole Person Care
The Good Clinic is redefining primary care. By combining expertise, empathy, accessibility, and convenience, their Nurse Practitioner Model is changing the way care is delivered. Learn how they are focusing on co-creating good health with their patients through integrated preventative care, virtual care, and wellness planning.
Speakers:
- Kevin Lee Smith, DNP, FNP, FAANP, Chief Nurse Practitioner, Officer and Founder, The Good Clinic
- Sarah Tupper, APRN, CNP, Primary Care Provider, The Good Clinic
October 2022 ANA Innovation Lounge
Disrupting the Cycle of Homelessness
Learn from two innovators how nurses are leading disruptive models to impact underserved populations. Paul Leon created the Street2Home model of integrated healthcare and housing, one of the largest and most successful recuperative care systems in the country. Lauran Hardin developed the Complex Care Center model, serving diverse populations with complex social needs. They've joined forces to scale these efforts across the country.
Speakers:
- Lauran Hardin, MSN, CNL, FNAP, FAAN, Senior Advisor, Illumination Foundation & National Health Care and Housing Advisors
- Paul Leon, CEO and Founder, Illumination Foundation