Omaha System Board of Directors
The volunteer Board of Directors was established in March 2001 to provide leadership for Omaha System revisions, presentations, publications, conferences, Website, and other advisory activities. More details are included in the 2005 book, Appendix D. The Board meets every two years following the Omaha System International Conference and communicates by phone and email between Conferences. Board members also communicate with members of the Listserv.
Current Board members have diverse practice, education, research, and software expertise related to the Omaha System. To contact a specific Board member, use the following information.
Nancy Acosta, RN, BSN
Parent Child Health Program Manager
Kitsap Public Health District
345 6th Street, Suite 300
Bremerton, WA 98337; USA
360-731-6144
nancy.acosta@kitsappublichealth.org
Nancy is the Program Manager for the Parent Child Health Program at the Kitsap Public Health District. She has worked directly with high-risk, low-income families providing visits during pregnancy through the first year after delivery for the Washington State First Steps Maternity Support Services and Infant Case Management since 2001. In addition, Nancy worked as nurse consultant for the local Early Head Start Program from 2009 to 2014. In 2012, she began seeing families with the Nurse Family Partnership Program and is now the Kitsap Public Health Nurse Family Partnership Administrator.
Nancy was a team member of the successful implementation of the Omaha System and electronic documentation in 2006 when her county’s Parent Child Health Program began using Champ Software. The team included nine nurses, six behavioral health/social workers, and two support staff. In 2010, Nancy assisted in the development of the Washington State Core Pathways. In 2012, she was a co-author of the article, “Measurable Outcomes from Standardized Nursing Documentation in an Electronic Health Record”, published in ANIA-Caring Nursing Informatics, an electronic newsletter. She and the entire Kitsap County Parent Child Health Team continue to work on quality improvement documentation efforts. Nancy joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2017. Nancy and her colleagues submitted a Nurse Family Partnership pathway for Chapter 3 of the next Omaha System book; they have been using pathways since 2006.
Robin R. Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP
Assistant Professor
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455; USA
952-412-6375
quis0026@umn.edu
Robin is an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She directs the Center for Nursing Informatics and the Omaha System Partnership practice-based research network, and coordinates the Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) Informatics specialty. Robin integrates her clinical background with informatics and data science methods to represent the patients’ perspective across the healthcare continuum.
Robin’s research combines expertise in consumer and clinical informatics, and her research with large datasets and data science methods examines social determinants of health and resilience. Robin and Karen Monsen developed the MyStrengths+MyHealth application that incorporates the Simplified Omaha System terms. Through this work she leads an international collaborative of scientists, clinicians, and consumers to advance the use of simplified Omaha System terms to understand whole-person health from the consumer perspective. Robin has been involved in the Omaha System since 2014 and joined the Board of Directors in 2023. She has published several articles about the use of MyStrengths+MyHealth and the Omaha System; she contributed to Chapters 5 and 6 for the next book. In addition, her research has been presented at national and international conferences, most recently at the Friends of the National Library of Medicine. She has presented at previous Omaha System International Conferences in 2017, 2019, and 2022. In 2019, Robin received the Omaha System Partnership PhD Student Research Methodologist Award.
Kathryn (Kathy) H. Bowles, RN, PhD, FACMI, FAAN
Professor and van Ameringen Chair in Nursing Excellence
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
418 Curie Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104-4217; USA
Vice President and Director of the Center for Home Care Policy & Research
VNS Health, NY
215-898-0323
bowles@nursing.upenn.edu
Kathy is a Professor and van Ameringen Chair in Nursing Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She co-founded RightCare Solutions in 2011, a software company based on her team's research on decision support for post-acute care referrals. Kathy has served on many national committees and workgroups to advance the care of older Americans. She was appointed to the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) Advisory Council and delivered the 2016 NINR Director's Lecture. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American College of Medical Informatics, a member of the American Nurses Association (ANA), and a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society and International Nursing Research Hall of Fame.
Kathy conducted the first Omaha System study in acute care, has published numerous articles and chapters about the Omaha System, and is co-author of Chapter 5, Use of the Omaha System in Research, for the next Omaha System book. Kathy enjoys teaching her students about the Omaha System and most recently has engaged teams in using the Omaha Systems terms in natural language processing studies. She has served on the Omaha System Board of Directors since 2001. Kathy received the first Omaha System Excellence in Research Award during the 2011 Omaha System International Conference. She was honored with the Senior Methodologist Award at the 2017 Omaha System Partnership business meeting and has spoken at the Omaha System International Conference 11 times.
Jeana M. Holt, RN, PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, APNP
Assistant Professor
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing
1921 E Hartford Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53211; USA
414-229-6768
jmholt@uwm.edu
Jeana is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing, where she teaches PhD and Doctor of Nursing Practice graduate students and conducts research. She formerly served as the director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing House of Peace Community Nursing Center and Primary Care Services, where she used the Omaha System and the College’s software to study of influences about how and why interventions work or do not work in different contexts.
Jeana’s research focuses on understanding the complex relationships between social and structural determinants of health, from biology to policy and nursing science. Her research includes developing care systems responsive to the individual- and community-level strengths, challenges, and needs using the Omaha System that systematically and comprehensively collects whole-person data and intervention preferences. Jeana has been involved with the Omaha System since 2011 and joined the Board of Directors in 2016. She has published several articles about the Omaha System and community-based nursing practice. Jeana will be the first author of Chapter 4, Use of the Omaha System in Education, and first author of a box in Chapter 5, Use of the Omaha System in Research, in the next Omaha System book. In addition, she and her colleagues served as the school host for the 2015 Omaha System International Conference, and she spoke at the 2017, 2019, and 2022 Conferences.
Taffany Hwang, MSN, DNP’23, PHN, PNP-BC, MPH
Nurse Consultant III
California Department of Public Health
Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch
850 Marina Bay Parkway,
Building P, Third Floor
Richmond, CA 94804; USA
taffany.hwang@aya.yale.edu
Taffany is a board-certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with a dual MSN-MPH degree from Yale University and a DNP executive candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. After a decade of practicing in primary and acute care pediatrics, she transitioned into a health policy and administration role at the California Department of Public Health. There, she provides administrative oversight of local public health nursing activities, including interpreting statutes and mandates into standardized practice policy and reviewing and approving contract funding of over 20 million dollars for 49 local health programs.
Taffany’s doctoral inquiry focuses on improving public health informatics, particularly collecting usable and meaningful public health interventions provided to the community by public health nurses and community health workers. After an extensive integrative review of numerous articles, she discovered the Omaha System and Omaha System Board members. Taffany designed, engaged multidisciplinary stakeholders, and implemented the Omaha System to be adapted and used in one of the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Programs in a California Health Department as a pilot. Preliminary project data indicates a measurable improvement in public health nurses’ satisfaction with the Omaha System, reduced charting burden and increased robustness of nurse-sensitive data quality. She plans to continue advocating for use of the Omaha System in documentation and data collection to promote data-informed and evidence-based policies. Taffany joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2023.
Karen E. Johnson, RN, PhD, FSAHM, FAAN
Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing
1710 Red River
Austin, TX 78701; USA
512-471-7971
kjohnson@mail.nur.utexas.edu
Karen is an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing. She conducts research to address health inequities in adolescents. Most of her work focuses on substance use, mental health, and co-occurring health-risk behaviors in adolescents who are at-risk for school dropout and attending alternative high schools. She also explores the role of providers in addressing health-risk behaviors during sports physicals. She is particularly interested in the role of school nurses in addressing health-risk behaviors with vulnerable youth.
Karen was introduced to the Omaha System during her PhD program at the University of Minnesota, where she collaborated with Dr. Karen Monsen on various projects and attended her first Omaha System International Conference. She is a member of The University of Texas at Austin Omaha System Users Group. She has used the Omaha System in teaching community assessment skills to bachelors and master’s level public health nursing students. She has also contributed to research publications that use Omaha System data to explore the impact of public health nursing interventions. Karen and The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing served as the school host for the April, 2019 Omaha System International Conference in Eagan, Minnesota, where she delivered the opening speech. Karen joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2017.
Brian J. Kates, MA, CPRP
Parks Operations Administrator & Director of Meadows Park Community Center
City of Colorado Springs
1943 El Paso Avenue
Colorado Springs, CO 80905; USA
719-385-7942
brian.kates@coloradosprings.gov
Brian has served as Director of the Meadows Park Community Center since 1998. The center has 3.0 full-time, 15 seasonal staff, and many volunteers, serving around 65,000 people annually. Programs include out-of-school time opportunities for youth, exercise and meal programs for older adults, and special events for families. Brian uses stories, qualitative data, and quantitative data to capture program outcomes. Emerging from the pandemic, the Omaha System will be especially useful in assessing both the negative impacts inflicted upon center customers as well as the successes that provided services and programs have had in restoring what was lost.
In 2013, Brian and colleagues established a community collaborative to connect health, recreation, and academic professionals who served Colorado Springs youth; it expanded to a state-wide group. For these efforts, he received the National Leadership Academy Public Health Award. In April, 2017, the collaborative sponsored a one-day “Out-of-School Summit”. In 2018, the focus of the Summit was the Omaha System; Brian described the 2017 Summer Camps and the Omaha System data analysis. Such details are the basis for several publications he co-authored with colleagues, including a contribution to Chapter 3 in the next Omaha System book. Brian also shared details about Omaha System use during his 2019 speech and poster presentation at the Omaha System International Conference. Brian joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2019.
Karen S. Martin, RN, MSN, FHIMSS, FAAN
Health Care Consultant
Martin Associates
5711 N. 167th Avenue Circle
Omaha, NE 68166; USA
402-333-1962
martinks0007@gmail.com
Karen is a Health Care Consultant. She was employed at the Visiting Nurse Association of Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska from 1978-1993 where she was the principal investigator of Omaha System research. Since 1993, she has provided consultation to prospective, new, and experienced interprofessional Omaha System users and software developers nationally and globally. Karen has served as a visiting scholar and speaker in more than 25 other countries.
Karen’s practice includes documentation, information management, outcomes measurement, and dissemination of the Omaha System. She provided testimony for federal meetings and the Institute of Medicine. In 2008, she was included in the American Medical Informatics Association-Nursing Informatics Working Group's Nursing Informatics History Project. She received the MNRS Informatics Section Distinguished Researcher Award, and alumni awards from Methodist Hospital School of Nursing and the University of Iowa. In 2010, she received the Ruth B. Freeman distinguished career award from the Public Health Nursing Section of the American Public Health Association. Karen is the author of the 2005 Omaha System book, 5 more books, more than 150 articles and chapters, and 70 editorials. She will author the next Omaha System book. She conducts workshops, and is a co-developer of the Omaha System Website. She has been the chair of the Omaha System Board of Directors, and the lead co-chair of the Omaha System International Conferences since 2001.
Karen A. Monsen, RN, PhD, FAMIA, FNAP, FAAN
Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
5-140 Weaver-Densford Hall, 308 Harvard Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455; USA
612-624-0490
mons0122@umn.edu
Karen is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. She founded and directed the Omaha System Partnership within the University of Minnesota Center for Nursing Informatics. This practice-based research network employs standardized data to inform health care quality questions. Karen’s cutting-edge research employs diverse methods including visualization, theory-based analysis, data mining and longitudinal analysis with the goals of improving practice quality and population health.
Beginning in 1998, Karen led the implementation of automated Omaha System-based software at Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment, Stillwater, MN. Karen is the author of numerous scientific publications related to the Omaha System, and guest co-editor of two journal issues. She has mentored numerous students and faculty, and has presented many times nationally and globally. Karen has been a member of the Omaha System Board of Directors since 2001; is a contributor to the Omaha System Website; and has been a co-chair of Omaha System International Conferences since 2005. Recognition for her work with the Omaha System Users Group received the American Public Health Association (APHA) Public Health Nursing (PHN) Section's Nursing Creative Achievement Award (2008), and she also received the Lillian Wald Service Award (2016). Karen received the first Omaha System Excellence in Education Award (2011), and the Excellence in Research award (2019). She received the AMIA Virginia K. Saba Informatics Award (2021).
Jeanette M. Olsen, RN, PhD, CNE
Associate Professor and Director of Assessment and Evaluation
University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire College of Nursing and Health Sciences
5 Roosevelt Ave.
Eau Claire, WI 54701; USA
715-836-5722
olsenjea@uwec.edu
Jeanette is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire College of Nursing and Health Sciences where she teaches undergraduate and graduate nursing courses, conducts research, and serves on multiple department, college, and university committees. She also serves as Director of Assessment and Evaluation for the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, providing leadership in matters relating to program effectiveness and the nursing programs’ achievement of accreditation requirements. Jeanette is the inaugural recipient of the five-year Suzanne Strowig University Fellowship Award with which she is pursuing a post-master’s certificate and strengthening her scholarship in nursing informatics.
Jeanette’s doctoral research examined factors associated with physical activity among rural women by analyzing Omaha System data documented by public health nurses. Subsequent studies have used the Omaha System to examine factors associated with health behaviors and intervention effectiveness in US and international populations. Jeanette presented posters at the Omaha System International Conferences in 2015, 2017, and 2019 and co-authored a presentation for the 2021 virtual Omaha System Update Conference. She also has co-authored six articles listed on the Omaha System Website and a book chapter about the Omaha System. She will be first author of Chapter 3, Use of the Omaha System in Practice, and co-author of Chapter 6, Use of Information Technology with the Omaha System, in the next Omaha System book. Jeanette joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2023.
Marleen H. Versteeg, RN, MSc
Program Manager and Senior Consultant
Vilans and the Omaha System Support Foundation
Churchilllaan 11
Postbus 8228
3527 GV, Utrecht
The Netherlands
+31(0)30 – 78 92 300/+31622810271
m.versteeg@vilans.nl
Marleen is the Program Manager and Senior Consultant at Vilans, The National Centre of Expertise for Long-term Care. She has been employed there for 13 years, and involved with the Omaha System Support Foundation for 7 years. She was employed in hospitals and elderly care facilities previously.
Some Dutch nurses and health care professionals became Omaha System supporters in the 1980s. After Buurtzorg was formed in 2006, they began to introduce and use the Omaha System throughout the Netherlands as a tool to increase the professionalization of nursing practice, especially in district/home health and nursing home care settings. Buurtzorg is a national and global home health provider organization that uses a team-based, self-governing model of nursing practice. To implement the Omaha System, Vilans became the executor of the Omaha System Support Foundation in 2015. Marleen and her Foundation colleagues work with those in practice, education, informatics, and software development to develop, disseminate, and implement sound evidence-based research, knowledge, and practice. They develop materials, care plans, teaching modules, and videos; maintain a Website; conduct presentations; and organize meetings. The Foundation encourages the use of evidence-based data to make the work of healthcare professionals more transparent, effective, and efficient. Marleen presents frequently and spoke at the Omaha System International Conference in 2019. She is a co-author on publications, and contributed to Chapters 3 and 6 for the next book. She joined the Omaha System Board of Directors in 2023.
Frances KY Wong, RN, PhD, FAAN, FHKAN (Education & Research)
Professor (Nursing), Associate Dean (Faculty of Health and Social Sciences)
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Nursing
Hunghom, Hong Kong
China SAR
852-27666419
frances.wong@polyu.edu.hk
Frances is a Professor and Associate Dean at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research work and publications are in the areas of advanced nursing practice, transitional care, and nursing education. Frances has published over 150 refereed articles, edited 3 books, and her works have been cited over 700 times in literature. She successful developed transitional care models for different patient groups including those who have cardiac, renal, respiratory, and stroke conditions, and palliative needs.
Frances has been appointed as adjunct and honorary professor in key universities including the University of Pennsylvania and Sunyatsun University. Frances is actively involved in global nursing development and has served as an elected core member in the International Council of Nurses INP/APN Network, panel judge for The Excellence in Educational Research Award Task Force of Sigma Theta Tau International, and a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. Frances incorporated the Omaha System in her courses, research, and publications, starting in the late 1990s. She has spoken at the Omaha System International Conference numerous times, and joined the Board of Directors in 2011. She was awarded with Omaha System Excellence in Research in 2017. Frances developed a team to test and confirm the validity of the Omaha System used among the Chinese population, as well as to translate the Omaha System into Chinese (Appendix A available here in Chinese).