Board Representatives
Board Representatives
- Agnese Bianchi, RN, BScN, MN
Toronto, Ontario
Agnese Bianchi is a Project Manager for clinical documentation in the Nursing Informatics department at the University Health Network (UHN)in Toronto. She holds a Diploma of Registered Nursing from the Ryerson School of Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Masters of Nursing from the University of Toronto.Agnese leads the clinical documentation initiative at UHN for nursing and allied health. Her responsibilities include the development and implementation of an electronic documentation system that captures and guides practice based on a patient-centred practice model and grounded on best practice and nursing sensitive patient outcomes. She also provides consultation on clinical practice, paper documentation, and policy development to other departments. Agnese participates in various local and provincial committees looking at the electronic health record and nursing informatics.
- Elizabeth Borycki RN MN PhD Candidate
Victoria, British Columbia
Elizabeth Borycki is an Assistant Professor in the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria, B.C. She has worked in both the private and public sectors. In the public sector, Elizabeth has worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Short Term Emergency Program Coordinator. As a Clinical Nurse Specialist, Elizabeth implemented provincial guidelines for the assessment and management of pressure ulcers across four facilities for the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. Because of her work in this area she was later invited to participate in an expert panel at the provincial panel where she contributed to the development of a Toolkit for Implementing Best Practice Guidelines that has received national and international recognition.Prior to implementing best practice guidelines Elizabeth was a Short Term Emergency Program Coordinator at Seven Oaks General Hospital where she evaluated the emergency services of the organization. In the private sector Elizabeth worked as a Disease Management Specialist in the pharmaceutical industry where she developed a comprehensive, evidence based disease management program. The program was implemented and evaluated in a seven site randomized clinical control trial and subsequently led to the publication of a textbook entitled Comprehensive Management of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. More recently, Elizabeth as a Health Information Specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, participated in requirements data gathering, testing, implementation and evaluation of health information systems aimed at supporting clinician practice and decision-making. As well, she worked for Saint Elizabeth’s Health Care as a consultant, developing content for an online educational program for health professionals.
- Jan Carter, BScN, RN, MEd
Vancouver, British Columbia
Jan Carter has served as a Nursing Informatics Consultant, and worked on a variety of projects including researching the competencies and roles of nursing informaticians across the spectrum of nursing practice. She has also been active in promoting the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) as a standardized nursing data vocabulary for use in Canada. Jan was past RNABC Informatics and Evaluation Policy Consultant for the former Registered Nurses Association of British Columbia for five years. She was also the Director of Nursing Informatics at Methodist Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Jan has served on many administrative, educational, and research projects for both the public and private sector. She obtained her Masters of Education as well as her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Ottawa. Jan was also one of the founding Board members of the CNIA and is a current member of several national and international organizations.
- Lois Cormack, MHSc, CHE
Bradford, Ontario
Lois Cormack is Vice President, Consulting and Professional Services, Specialty Care. In this role, Lois has a key position in the management of 14 long term care homes and leads the Specialty Care Consulting practice to improve organizational capacity and effectiveness in long term care and community care. Lois has extensive senior management and consulting experience in all health care sectors and led numerous large scale informatics and operational redesign projects, resulting in improved quality and financial performance. Lois has had a key role in the implementation and application of interRAI instruments for many years and is on numerous advisory groups promoting adoption of standards, technology and research in community and long term care. Lois is actively involved with the Ontario Long Term Care Association, Canadian College of Health Service Executives and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario.
- Mary Cornacchia, RN BA Masters St
Toronto, Ontario
Mary Cornacchia is currently the Manager of Clinical Applications and Information Services at North York General Hospital in Ontario. Since 1989, Mary has served in various Nursing Informatics related capacities at North York, including Computer Nurse Trainer, Module Project Leader, Clinical Application Specialist, Senior User Support Specialist, and Acting Director,
Information Services. She is also an active member of various associations including the Canadian Organization for Computing in Health Care, Ontario Health Information Management Society, Ontario College of Nurses, and the Ontario Nursing Informatics Association.
- Lisa Cranley RN MN, PhD Candidate
Toronto, Ontario
Lisa Cranley is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto. Lisa has worked as a hospital staff nurse in the intensive care unit in both Canada and the US. She has also worked as a research assistant at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto on a study exploring nursing work environments and patient and hospital level outcomes, and a study examining the feasibility of personal digital assistants for nurses to collect, utilize, and communicate patient health information. Lisa’s dissertation focuses on developing a theory to explain how medical-surgical intensive care nurses experience and respond to uncertainty in their practice. Lisa holds a Doctoral Fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
- Helen Edwards RN MN
Mississauga, Ontario
Helen Edwards is the Director of Clinical Informatics and Technology for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario. She also serves as a part-time Instructor of Issues of Informatics, Knowledge Transfer and Exchange in the Masters of Nursing Program at Ryerson University inToronto. Helen earned her Masters of Nursing Administration from the University of Toronto and her Bachelors of Arts (Health Studies) from York University. Helen has been involved in many research projects, publications, and conference presentations.
- Rebecca B. Espedido RN, M.A., CCRN
Toronto, OntarioRebecca Espedido completed her M.A. in Nursing Informatics from New York University. She is presently employed as a Clinical Informatics Specialist in Clinical Documentation, Gateway Project for Toronto East General Hospital. Rebecca is involved in the design, development, implementation, support of clinical documentation applications and the wireless project. She has extensive years of nursing experience in pediatrics/neonatal critical care and has worked as a MIS trainer and a Nurse Coordinator/IT Liaison Officer in New York for 2 years. She has previously participated as a speaker and displayed poster presentations for Coach, CQI Network and the Canadian Cerner Regional User Group.
- Joy Fraser, RN, PhD
Edmonton, Alberta
Joy Fraser is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Nursing & Health Studies at Athabasca University, specializing in the teaching of Nursing Informatics, Transforming
Health Care Through Information, and Health and Culture. She is also a Consultant to the World Health/ Pan American Health Organization/ Health Canada. In 2005, Joy won the United Nations Association in Canada’s Global Citizen Award for contributing to the building of a more peaceful and global community. Joy completed her BSN, MSN and PhD in Educational Administration (Policy Studies) at the University of Alberta. She also has a Certificate in Human Rights Training. Joy has participated in several Human Rights initiatives, research studies, publications, and presentations.
- Paulette Lacroix
Vancouver, British ColumbiaPaulette Lacroix operates PC Lacriox Consulting Inc. in British Columbia. As a consultant, she is currently working with the B.C. Provincial Ministry team to design the implementation of the
Electronic Health Record.
- Liz Loewen RN, BFA, MN
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Liz Loewen is the Director of MBTelehealth for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. She is responsible for strategic leadership and direction in the Manitoba province-wide telehealth network. Liz also provides informatics and telehealth lectures for the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Manitoba. She has served as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and Clinic Coordinator at the Youville Centre in Winnipeg. As well, she has experience working as a Research Associate for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. She continues to be involved with various research projects including a First Nations Expansion Project, a multi-jurisdictional project deploying ten new telehealth sites in various First Nations communities in Manitoba. Liz has been involved in many research projects, publications, and conference presentations.
- Carol McKenney, RNToronto, Ontario
Carol McKenney has many years of extensive adult critical care nursing experience spanning over several metropolitan critical care units. After branching into clinical informatics, Carol specialized in clinical documentation. Within her role as Clinical Informatics Specialist, Carol supports electronic documentation including a bedside medical device interface application for two Critical Care units, where she is responsible for ongoing design, upgrade, maintenance and education. As a member of an interdisciplinary documentation team, Carol has supported an institution-wide implementation. As well, she has been instrumental in adapting one of the tools in electronic format for the critical care areas. Carol is currently working on a project to implement the Surgical Suite’s perioperative nursing documentation. Carol has shared her experiences at several Canadian and American conferences. As a member of RNAO and ONIG she continues to be informed of current clinical and informatics nursing trends and issues.
- Sharon Ronaldson, RN BSN PhD
Victoria, British Columbia
Sharon Ronaldson teaches Nursing for the University of Victoria and Langara College in Vancouver, B.C. She obtained her PhD at the Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry (Curriculum & Instruction) at the University of British Columbia. Her PhD dissertation research focused on Untangling Critical Thinking in Educational Cyberspace. She also serves as a Peer Reviewer for the CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing: Journal. She is co-author of Nursing foundations: A Canadian perspective (1999, 2nd ed.). Sharon has been involved in numerous research studies and conference presentations.
- Tracy Sala RN, BN, MHSA
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Tracy Sala is a Clinical Informatics Coordinator for the Capital District Health Authority in Halifax. She is involved in the development, planning and testing of various clinical information systems, including the first nursing peri-operative IS tool in Nova Scotia. Tracy earned her Masters of Health Service Administration from Dalhousie University and her Bachelor of Nursing from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Tracy has been involved in a variety of research and clinical practice projects and committees.
- Loretta Secco, RN PhD
Sydney, Nova ScotiaEducation1997 – PhD, Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba
1988 – MN, Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba
1978 – BScN, Saint Francis Xavier UniversityLoretta is a pediatric nurse with interests in parenting and child development. She teaches with the Joint St Francis Xavier/Cape Breton University Nursing Program, Sydney, NS. She has taught various undergraduate nursing courses, including pediatric nursing, human growth and development, health promotion and learning, and nursing research methods.
During her Masters nursing project with mothers and premature infants she developed and assessed the effect of a home-based nursing intervention on mother-infant interaction, infant developmental behaviour, and maternal competence. She developed a scale, the Infant Care Questionnaire (ICQ), to measure maternal infant care competence which has been validated in several studies with healthy mother and in a longitudinal study with high-risk adolescent mothers and their infants (doctoral research program). She belongs to several research groups and centres, including the Manitoba Institute for Child Health and the St Amant Research Centre, Winnipeg. Her research has been focused on child, parent, and situational factors that determine parenting, child, and maternal outcomes. She is a member of two inter-provincial research groups, one that studies vulnerable children with or at risk for developmental delay and one that looks at the effects of intimate partner violence on the mother-infant relationship. She also has research interests in nurses’ use of information to support evidence based practice.
Loretta has an interest in computers and has attended several nursing informatics workshops, including the WINI (Weekend Immersion in Nursing Informatics). She has an interest in the use of computers and technological innovations in nursing education and clinical teaching, including the application of PDA’s as information sources and virtual clinical excursion programs as clinical teaching tools. Along with an evidence-based nursing research/practice group at the Winnipeg Children’s Hospital, Loretta completed a study looking at the use of information sources among pediatric nurses. For this project, a survey was developed to measure practicing nurses’ use of different types of information (computer, print-based and interpersonal).
- Lynn Tkac, RN, BA, MHS
Toronto, Ontario
Lynn Tkac is currently with Rouge Valley Health System, a two-site community hospital in the east end of Toronto, where she is the Project Manager of Clinical Informatics. Lynn recently completed a significant hospital information system conversion, and is preparing to lead the organization forward with another e-health initiative that will introduce the electronic record.Lynn holds a BA in Health Studies from York University, a Master of Health Studies from Athabasca University, and MIS Guidelines Level I and II Certifications from the Ontario Hospital Association. Lynn served two terms as President of the South Chapter of the Ontario Nursing Informatics Group, effectively leading the interest group during a time of significant change.
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