AACN Certification Corp. Announces 2015-16 Board

Jul 08, 2015

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AACN Certification Corporation Announces Board of Directors for Fiscal Year 2016

Mary Frances Pate returns for second year as chair of national board

AACN Certification Corporation establishes, maintains high standards of practice for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families

ALISO VIEJO, Calif. — July 7, 2015  — AACN Certification Corporation — the credentialing arm of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) — announces its leadership for fiscal year 2016, with terms effective July 1, 2015. 

Mary Frances Pate, RN, PhD, CNS, leads the board as chair during her seventh year of service on the AACN Certification Corporation national board. This is the final year of her two-year term as chair that will conclude June 30, 2016. 

Pate recently served as an associate professor at the University of Portland School of Nursing in Oregon from 2012-2015. She held prior academic appointments at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing in Portland. 

Before holding teaching positions at the graduate level, she was a clinical nurse specialist in the pediatric intensive care unit at OHSU from 2000-2005 and at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Birmingham, from 1993-2000. She was also a member of the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal AACN Advanced Critical Care from 2004 until 2014, serving as its pediatric department editor for seven years. 

AACN Certification Corporation promotes and enhances consumer health and safety through certification and certification renewal. It has certified more than 90,000 nurses and provides comprehensive credentialing for establishing and maintaining standards of excellence in acute and critical care nursing. 

Denise Buonocore, RN, MSN, ACNPC, CCNS, CCRN, CHFN, joins the AACN Certification Corporation board as a director for a one-year term through June 30, 2016. She is an acute care nurse practitioner for heart failure services at St. Vincent’s Multispecialty Group, Bridgeport, Connecticut, with previous service on the AACN Certification Corporation board and the AACN board of directors.

Also serving on the AACN Certification Corporation board with Dana Woods, AACN chief executive officer, are the following officers and directors:  

  • 2015-16 Chair-elect Karen S. Kesten, RN, DNP, APRN, CCRN-K, CCNS, CNE, director of educational innovations at American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Washington, and part-time associate professor at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, Washington 
  • 2015-2017 Director Sonia Astle, RN, MS, CCRN, CNRN, CCNS, clinical nurse specialist, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Virginia, who returns for a two-year term
  • 2015-16 Secretary/Treasurer Lisa A. Falcón, RN, MSN, NE-BC, director of the adult and pediatric trauma center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey
  • 2013-16 Director Milisa Manojlovich, RN, PhD, CCRN, associate professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

AACN has appointed Nancy Freeland, RN, MSN, CCRN, and Lisa Riggs, MSN, APRN-BC, CCRN-K, as its representatives to the AACN Certification Corporation board of directors. Each year, two members of the AACN board of directors serve one-year concurrent terms on the AACN Certification Corporation board. 

Freeland is a senior nurse educator for critical care at University of Rochester (UR) Medical Center, Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. Since joining UR in 1990, she has filled various nurse manager and nurse educator roles. 

Riggs is a cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist at Shawnee Mission Medical Center, Overland Park, Kansas. She previously held a variety of clinical and administrative positions at St. Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, for 18 years.

About AACN Certification Corporation: AACN Certification Corporation, a separately incorporated company, develops and administers the CCRN, PCCN, CCRN-E, CCRN-K, ACNPC, ACNPC-AG, CCNS, ACCNS-AG, ACCNS-P and ACCNS-N specialty exams, and the CMC and CSC subspecialty exams. In collaboration with the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE) Credentialing Center, AACN Certification Corporation also offers the CNML exam. AACN Certification Corporation promotes and enhances consumer health and safety by establishing and maintaining high standards of professional practice excellence through certification and certification renewal for nurses who care for acutely and critically ill patients and their families.

About the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses: Founded in 1969 and based in Aliso Viejo, California, the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) is the largest specialty nursing organization in the world. AACN joins together the interests of more than 500,000 acute and critical care nurses and includes more than 225 chapters worldwide. The organization’s vision is to create a healthcare system driven by the needs of patients and their families in which acute and critical care nurses make their optimal contribution.


American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
101 Columbia
Aliso Viejo, CA 92656-4109

Phone: (949) 362-2000
Fax: (949) 362-2020
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