Karen S. Kesten, Director

AACN Certification Corporation Board July 2011 - June 2014

Karen S. Kesten, RN, DNP, APRN, CCRN, PCCN, CCNS, assistant professor and program director, Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, Washington, D.C., serves a three-year term as a director on the AACN Certification Corporation board from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2014.

Kesten held an academic position at The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1988 and was director of nursing education and research, and critical care education specialist, Adventist Healthcare’s Washington Adventist Hospital, Takoma Park, Md., from 2005 to 2006.

She held clinical appointments between 1974 and 2011 with Adventist Healthcare’s Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Rockville, Md.; Washington Hospital Center; St. Luke’s Texas Heart Institute, Houston; Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta; and Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston.

Kesten belongs to the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and AACN’s Greater Washington Area Chapter.

A frequent writer and presenter on clinical practice and AACN’s Healthy Work Environment Standards, she received the Competitive Faculty Research Award from Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies in 2008 and the Dean’s Research Award, University Research Fund, The Catholic University of America in 1986.

Kesten earned a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, in 1974, and a Master of Science in nursing from The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C, in 1980.

She received a Teaching in Nursing and Health Professions Certificate and a doctor of nursing practice degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, in 2009.

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