Members of the Nursing Education Committee are nurse educators who meet monthly to discuss current trends and issues in nursing education. Periodically the Executive Secretary of the NYSED Board for Nursing, Suzanne Sullivan, joins the committee calls to hear directly from our members. A sub-committee of this committee and the Program Committee review and select content for our Annual Conference. Committee members are also encouraged to submit their own, colleagues’, or students’ work for articles in our quarterly magazine. Join this committee if you are a nurse educator either in higher education or in clinical settings.

The 2024 members of the Nursing Education Committee are:

Chair – Joanne Lapidus-Graham, EdD, RN, CPNP, CNE

Joanne Lapidus-Graham is a nursing professor at Farmingdale State College since 1990 and is a lead faculty for the health promotion/patient education course. Her other specialties have included pediatrics and women’s health/obstetrical nursing. Dr. Graham was elected 12 years ago to the first board of ANA-NY, first serving two terms as a Director, and 2 terms as Vice-President, and was appointed in October 2018 as the ANA-NY Consultant to NSANYS.

Dr. Graham’s other professional services have included faculty counselor to the Chi Gamma Chapter of Sigma at Farmingdale State College, Vice President, former committee member who formed the chapter, President-Elect, and currently as the President. She also is the Faculty Advisor to the FSC Student Nurses Association for almost 34 years. Her past offices include: President (4 years) and Board of Directors (4 years) for the Nurses Association of the Counties of Long Island (NACLI), Chair of the Parent/Child Clinical Practice Unit, and Council on Nursing Education of NYSNA.

Dr. Graham’s involvement in professional nursing organizations and giving back to the nursing profession has been her lifelong passion. During her leadership on the nursing education committee, nursing faculty have been actively involved in providing and disseminating information to enhance and to influence, the practice of nursing education in New York State. The committee completed two white papers: one on nurse residency programs for new nursing graduates and the other topic was Dedicated Educational Units as an Intervention to Decrease the Nursing Shortage.

Doreen Rogers, DNS, RN, CNE

Doreen has been an RN for thirty-two years and a faculty member for twenty-one years at the associate, baccalaureate, and graduate levels, including various leadership roles in several departments and institutions. Her professional nursing practice has largely been in critical care. As an educator, she has had a long-term interest in program assessment that has led to involvement in accreditation activities at the regional and national levels.  Her research interests include instructional pedagogies, student success and retention, and professional nurse retention and support. It has been her pleasure to serve on this committee and network with ANA-NY and its members.

Kady Hoistion, MS, RN, CNE

Kady is the Director of Nursing at Jefferson Community College, her alma mater, in Watertown, NY. She graduated with her nursing degree in 2013 and worked as an RN at a local hospital and in private cardiology practice following graduation. After several years, she decided to pursue her graduate degree in nursing, graduating from Excelsior College in 2017 with a master’s degree in nursing. She has worked at Jefferson Community College for the past 8 years, teaching and in leadership roles within the nursing department. She loves what she does and has enjoyed being a member of the ANA-NY Nursing Education Committee for the past few years.

Jessica Varghese, PhD, RN

Dr. Varghese is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, New York. She completed her PhD in Nursing in 2017 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She has worked in nursing professional development and leadership roles for over 25 years. She is the current Chair of the American Nurses Association of New York Legislative Committee. She is a member of the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nurses inaugural Research Committee and a Fellow of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments with a strong interest in environmental justice.

Tara Zacharzuk-Marciano, PhD, RN

Tara L. Zacharzuk-Marciano is the founder and owner of a legal nurse consulting firm in Highland, N.Y. She holds a Ph.D. in nursing education from Capella University and an M.A. in nursing education from Pace University. Before starting her own firm, Tara served as a lead surgical services nurse educator at Nuvance Health and an assistant professor of nursing at SUNY Ulster. She has more than 20 years of clinical experience across various disciplines, including surgical services, patient advocacy, and clinical instruction, and is passionate about providing high-quality services to attorneys and law firms in need of medical case assistance.

Nancy Maggio, DNP, RN, ACNS-BC

Dr. Nancy Maggio is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Farmingdale State College on Long Island, NY and is a board-certified Adult Health Clinical Nurse Specialist. She has been a nurse for 44 years with experience in critical care, telemetry nursing, med-surg, management and education. Dr. Maggio’s experience in nursing education spans over 30 years in both the academic and hospital settings. She currently enjoys teaching simulation, and health assessment to undergraduate nursing students and is co-advisor to the Farmingdale State College Student Nurses Association. Dr. Maggio is also an American Heart Association Basic Life Support instructor and is actively involved in a summer nurse extern program at a medical center in her community. Dr. Maggio received her DNP in 2017 from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. She received her BSN from Adelphi University, Garden City, NY in 1984 and her MSN from Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY in 1989. Research interests include heart failure education, use of evidence-based practice guidelines in long term care settings and writing in the disciplines (especially nursing). Dr. Maggio was recently the proud recipient of the 2022-2023 State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service in recognition of outstanding and sustained service and significant contribution to institutional quality. She enjoys time with family and friends and spending time on the North Fork of Long Island and in the Catskills, NY. Hobbies include bicycling, walks on the beach and in the mountains, reading, needlepoint and listening to music.

Sarah Marshall, DNP, MSN, RN
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Christina Bierling-Norris, PhD, RN, NPD-BC
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Aliza Ben-Zacharia, PhD, DNP, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN

Dr. Ben-Zacharia is a full-time faculty and an assistant professor on a tenure track at Hunter College and is the Co-Director of the Research/EBP fellowship at the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON). She is a board certified ANP with experience in acute care, neurology, and rehabilitation. Dr. Ben-Zacharia is a multiple sclerosis expert and a researcher and has her independent Multiple Sclerosis practice. She has a passion for gaining a greater understanding and working toward improving the care of patients with neurological diseases. Her research in MS focuses on nutrition, obesity, quality of life and palliative care. She published numerous articles and book chapters in the field of MS. She recently received a CTSC grant from Weill Cornell Medical Center supporting a randomized control trial and implementing a palliative care model in neurology.

Dr. Ben-Zacharia developed multiple neurological educational programs for patients and health care providers. She has been the past president of the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Nurses (IOMSN). Dr. Ben-Zacharia is on the editorial board of MS Perspectives, a patient MS magazine and one of the editors of the Practical Implementation of Nursing Science Journal (PINS). Dr. Ben-Zacharia has won multiple awards from the NMSS (Hall of Fame and educational award), the IOMSN (Research award), and Mount Sinai Hospital (rehabilitation, neurology service award and the Cullman Patients’ award in 2019 and 2020 at Mount Sinai Hospital). The Cullman Family Award for Excellence in Physician/APC Communication (99 percentile) in clinical practice, is provided to clinicians who ranked in the top one percent nationally in provider communication based on the CG CAHP patient experience survey.

Leticia Rios, MS, RN
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Richardeanea Theodore
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Heidi Reed, RN
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Suzanne Elie, MSN, RN, CCRN
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Board Liaison – Giselle Gerardi, PhD, RN, C-EFM, RNC-OB

Dr. Giselle Gerardi is an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University School of Nursing. She received her PhD from The CUNY Graduate Center, MSN in Community and Public Health Nursing from the University of Hartford, BA in Spanish Language and Literature from Stony Brook University, and AAS in Nursing from Suffolk County Community College. Dr. Gerardi’s research interests include health equity, health promotion, disease prevention, and perinatal health care. She is a Director-at-Large for ANA-NY and serves as the Nursing Education Committee liaison.