September 22, 2023
Dr. Susan Johnson - Speaker at the Health and Well-Being Conference on October 19th

Dr. Susan Johnson, Associate Professor at UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership will be speaking on October 19th at the Health and Well-Being Conference held by the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission (NCQAC) at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center on October 19th and 20th. There is still time to register. Find out more information about the conference and other presenters here.
September 21, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Sunny Cheng for her Many Recognitions

- UW Tacoma’s School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership is delighted to announce that Dr. Sunny Cheng has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure effective September 16, 2023.
- Dr. Sunny Cheng was selected by the Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) as the recipient of the Shining Star Community Partner Award which recognized her community engagement and research activities to support TPS students, families, and schools. This line of work was supported by the community partnership office and the Population Health Initiative. The ceremony will be held on September 28th.
- Dr. Hilaire Thompson, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Personnel invited Dr. Sunny Cheng to be a panelist at the "Building a Scholarship Portfolio in Medicine & Health Sciences" at UW Seattle on September 11th.
September 5, 2023
Dr. Sharon Laing Honored with the Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award

Congratulations to Dr. Sharon Laing as one of this year's honorees of the Lyndon Haviland Public Health Mentoring Award by the American Public Health Association (APHA)! Dr. Laing is associate professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership and adjunct associate professor at the University of Washington Seattle School of Public Health.
“These outstanding public health leaders and advocates are truly inspiring. In many different ways, each of them has strengthened the field and helped create healthier communities." said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of APHA.
June 12, 2023
2023 Master of Nursing Hooding Ceremony
Congratulations to the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership's 2023 Master of Nursing graduates!

Congratulations to Dr. Kathleen Shannon Dorcy who was awarded the Founders Legacy Award by SNHCL's Dean, Dr. David Reyes and Dean Emerita, Dr. Sharon Fought. Dr. Shannon Dorcy has helped UW Tacoma's campus and community grow over the past 30 years.

June 1, 2023
Peter Mathias Mendy Promoted to Senior Director of Operations at Kaiser Permanente Washington

Congratulations to Peter Mathias Mendy, an alum of both our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) and Master of Nursing (MN) programs! He was promoted to Senior Director of Operations at Kaiser Permanente Washington in April 2023.
May 31, 2023
Bao Nguyen Accepted to Duke-NUS Medical School MD/PhD program in Integrated Biology and Medicine

Congratulations to Bao Nguyen, BA Healthcare Leadership Alumna! She has been accepted to the Duke-NUS Medical School MD/PhD program in Integrated Biology and Medicine! This program is her top choice. It is a seven-year program that takes place in Singapore and will provide a full scholarship for her education. She hopes to pursue public health research and apply what she has learned from the BA Healthcare Leadership program as well as her research work with Associate Professor, Dr. Sharon Laing.
April 7, 2023
Dr. David Reyes Named New Dean of UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership

We are excited to announce that Dr. David Reyes has been named the new Dean of UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership. Dr. Reyes served as interim dean since Dr. Sharon Fought, founding dean of the school, stepped down in 2022, and his appointment is the culmination of a national search. He also holds a faculty appointment as an associate professor in the school, and an adjunct appointment in both the Schools of Nursing and Public Health at UW in Seattle.
Dr. Reyes has nearly 40 years of professional nursing and leadership experience. He received his Doctor of Nursing Practice, ’13, and Master of Nursing, ’02, and Master of Public Health, ’02, degrees from UW in Seattle, and his B.S. Nursing, ’83, from Seattle University.
His primary scholarship interests are in addressing the root causes of health inequity and disparities, building community leadership capacity, and using community-based participatory approaches that focus on equitable partnerships between communities and health systems. He is currently partnering with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to explore barriers to, and facilitators of, vaccine acceptance among Asian American Pacific Islander and transgender communities.
April 4, 2023
Highlighting Dr. Susan Johnson's Latest Work

We are excited to share that Dr. Susan Johnson, Associate Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, completed a book last fall which is published as an open access text under a creative commons license via UW's Manifold publishing platform: Building and Sustaining a Compassionate Nursing Practice.
Dr. Johnson was recently interviewed by CBS Chicago and appears in their story involving workplace bullying at a local courthouse. The recorded video can be seen on cbschicago.com.
Dr. Johnson also recently led a workshop on workplace bullying in health careers in the STOP the Bull(ying) in Higher Education Symposium for Faculty held on February 24th and March 31st, 2023.
March 21, 2023
BIPOC Nursing Leadership Symposium

We are excited to announce that Juana Gallegos and Rebecca Allen, UW Tacoma SNHCL's Master of Nursing Alumni, along with the Washington Center for Nursing (WCN) are holding their first BIPOC Nursing Leadership Symposium on April 1st from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. If you identify yourself as a BIPOC nurse, please join them for a day of celebration with food, discussion, and amazing panelists. Since spots are limited, please register at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7SZ93S3.

March 15, 2023
Dori Unterseher Named as the New Chief Nursing Officer for Harbor Regional Health

Congratulations to Dori Unterseher, Master of Nursing alumna at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership! She was promoted to the role of Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Harbor Regional Health in January 2022. Dori Unterseher has been with Harbor Regional Health since 1992 in diverse roles such as Manager of the Critical Care Unit and Emergency Department, Emergency Department Director, and Director of Education.
January 30, 2023
Dr. Sharon Laing and Dr. Shannon Dorcy Lead Virtual Book Discussion at Rainier Oympic Nurses Association

On March 21, 2023, Dr. Sharon Laing, Associate Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership and Dr. Kathleen Shannon-Dorcy, Nurse Scientist and Director of Research, Scholarship, and Program Development at Fred Hutch Cancer Center are leading a discussion on the book: Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief by Michelle Cassandra Johnson. Join Rainier Nurses Association for this virtual book discussion! Register at: Book Discussion for Nurses – Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief – Rainier Olympic Nurses Association.
January 26, 2023
Congratulations to UW Tacoma's current Master of Nursing student, Abbie Cozzi!

Abbie Cozzi, current Master of Nursing student at UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership has been recently offered a teaching position at Bates Technical College. She will begin her new role on February 1st.
January 25, 2023
UW Tacoma Faculty Presenting at the IMSH Conference in Orlando, Florida

UW Tacoma faculty: Chris Barrans, Nancy Kuhuski, and Megan Toothaker from the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice and Dr. Katie Haerling from the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership presented at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando, FL. https://imsh2023.org/
Their presentation's description is as follows.
Content Category: Education
Learning Objective 1: Describe opportunities to develop high-quality, open access virtual simulation activities for interprofessional education addressing community-based health care services.
Learning Objective 2: Identify methods to build capacity and leadership necessary for the development of interprofessional virtual simulations addressing community-based health care services.
Learning Objective 3: Explore opportunities to build capacity and leadership to develop interprofessional virtual simulations within participants own community of practice.
Course Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic, among other dynamics in healthcare, social work, and criminal justice education, has highlighted the critical need to develop and implement innovative experiential learning opportunities including high-quality open-access virtual simulations addressing specific learning objectives and community needs. This presentation describes innovative methods to build capacity and leadership necessary for achieving these innovations.
January 23, 2023
Dr. Katie Haerling, UW Tacoma SNHCL Professor and Andria Jolly-Morris, MN Alumna Presented at IMSH Conference 2023

Dr. Katie Haerling, Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, and Andria Jolly-Morris, Spring 2022 Master of Nursing graduate, presented the work both Andria and Jennifer Lovik did in their Master of Nursing scholarly inquiry project at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando, Florida. https://imsh2023.org/
In another session, Dr. Katie Haerling also presented part of her National Council of State Boards of Nursing Center for Regulatory Excellence Grant: CRE Grant|NCSBN funded project at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare. This is a link to the related article: Contributing to Evidence-Based Regulatory Decisions: A Comparison of Traditional Clinical Experience, Mannequin-Based Simulation, and Screen-Based Virtual Simulation - Journal of Nursing Regulation.
Haerling, K., Jolly-Morris, A., & Lovik, J. (2023). Exploring students’ experiences completing a COVID-19 transmission simulation.
Haerling, K. (2023). Exploring how traditional clinical, virtual simulation, and mannequin-based simulation inform students’ clinical judgments and nursing care.
June 1, 2023
Peter Mathias Mendy Promoted to Senior Director of Operations at Kaiser Permanente Washington

Congratulations to Peter Mathias Mendy, an alum of both our Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) and Master of Nursing (MN) programs! He was promoted to Senior Director of Operations at Kaiser Permanente Washington in April 2023.
May 31, 2023
Bao Nguyen Accepted to Duke-NUS Medical School MD/PhD program in Integrated Biology and Medicine

Congratulations to Bao Nguyen, BA Healthcare Leadership Alumna! She has been accepted to the Duke-NUS Medical School MD/PhD program in Integrated Biology and Medicine! This program is her top choice. It is a seven-year program that takes place in Singapore and will provide a full scholarship for her education. She hopes to pursue public health research and apply what she has learned from the BA Healthcare Leadership program as well as her research work with Associate Professor, Dr. Sharon Laing.
April 7, 2023
Dr. David Reyes Named New Dean of UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership

We are excited to announce that Dr. David Reyes has been named the new Dean of UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership. Dr. Reyes served as interim dean since Dr. Sharon Fought, founding dean of the school, stepped down in 2022, and his appointment is the culmination of a national search. He also holds a faculty appointment as an associate professor in the school, and an adjunct appointment in both the Schools of Nursing and Public Health at UW in Seattle.
Dr. Reyes has nearly 40 years of professional nursing and leadership experience. He received his Doctor of Nursing Practice, ’13, and Master of Nursing, ’02, and Master of Public Health, ’02, degrees from UW in Seattle, and his B.S. Nursing, ’83, from Seattle University.
His primary scholarship interests are in addressing the root causes of health inequity and disparities, building community leadership capacity, and using community-based participatory approaches that focus on equitable partnerships between communities and health systems. He is currently partnering with Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to explore barriers to, and facilitators of, vaccine acceptance among Asian American Pacific Islander and transgender communities.
April 4, 2023
Highlighting Dr. Susan Johnson's Latest Work

We are excited to share that Dr. Susan Johnson, Associate Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, completed a book last fall which is published as an open access text under a creative commons license via UW's Manifold publishing platform: Building and Sustaining a Compassionate Nursing Practice.
Dr. Johnson was recently interviewed by CBS Chicago and appears in their story involving workplace bullying at a local courthouse. The recorded video can be seen on cbschicago.com.
Dr. Johnson also recently led a workshop on workplace bullying in health careers in the STOP the Bull(ying) in Higher Education Symposium for Faculty held on February 24th and March 31st, 2023.
March 21, 2023
BIPOC Nursing Leadership Symposium

We are excited to announce that Juana Gallegos and Rebecca Allen, UW Tacoma SNHCL's Master of Nursing Alumni, along with the Washington Center for Nursing (WCN) are holding their first BIPOC Nursing Leadership Symposium on April 1st from 12:30pm to 2:30pm. If you identify yourself as a BIPOC nurse, please join them for a day of celebration with food, discussion, and amazing panelists. Since spots are limited, please register at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7SZ93S3.

March 15, 2023
Dori Unterseher Named as the New Chief Nursing Officer for Harbor Regional Health

Congratulations to Dori Unterseher, Master of Nursing alumna at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership! She was promoted to the role of Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Harbor Regional Health in January 2022. Dori Unterseher has been with Harbor Regional Health since 1992 in diverse roles such as Manager of the Critical Care Unit and Emergency Department, Emergency Department Director, and Director of Education.
January 30, 2023
Dr. Sharon Laing and Dr. Shannon Dorcy Lead Virtual Book Discussion at Rainier Oympic Nurses Association

On March 21, 2023, Dr. Sharon Laing, Associate Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership and Dr. Kathleen Shannon-Dorcy, Nurse Scientist and Director of Research, Scholarship, and Program Development at Fred Hutch Cancer Center are leading a discussion on the book: Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief by Michelle Cassandra Johnson. Join Rainier Nurses Association for this virtual book discussion! Register at: Book Discussion for Nurses – Finding Refuge: Heart Work for Healing Collective Grief – Rainier Olympic Nurses Association.
January 26, 2023
Congratulations to UW Tacoma's current Master of Nursing student, Abbie Cozzi!

Abbie Cozzi, current Master of Nursing student at UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership has been recently offered a teaching position at Bates Technical College. She will begin her new role on February 1st.
January 25, 2023
UW Tacoma Faculty Presenting at the IMSH Conference in Orlando, Florida

UW Tacoma faculty: Chris Barrans, Nancy Kuhuski, and Megan Toothaker from the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice and Dr. Katie Haerling from the School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership presented at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando, FL. https://imsh2023.org/
Their presentation's description is as follows.
Content Category: Education
Learning Objective 1: Describe opportunities to develop high-quality, open access virtual simulation activities for interprofessional education addressing community-based health care services.
Learning Objective 2: Identify methods to build capacity and leadership necessary for the development of interprofessional virtual simulations addressing community-based health care services.
Learning Objective 3: Explore opportunities to build capacity and leadership to develop interprofessional virtual simulations within participants own community of practice.
Course Overview: The COVID-19 pandemic, among other dynamics in healthcare, social work, and criminal justice education, has highlighted the critical need to develop and implement innovative experiential learning opportunities including high-quality open-access virtual simulations addressing specific learning objectives and community needs. This presentation describes innovative methods to build capacity and leadership necessary for achieving these innovations.
January 23, 2023
Dr. Katie Haerling, UW Tacoma SNHCL Professor and Andria Jolly-Morris, MN Alumna Presented at IMSH Conference 2023

Dr. Katie Haerling, Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, and Andria Jolly-Morris, Spring 2022 Master of Nursing graduate, presented the work both Andria and Jennifer Lovik did in their Master of Nursing scholarly inquiry project at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in Orlando, Florida. https://imsh2023.org/
In another session, Dr. Katie Haerling also presented part of her National Council of State Boards of Nursing Center for Regulatory Excellence Grant: CRE Grant|NCSBN funded project at the 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare. This is a link to the related article: Contributing to Evidence-Based Regulatory Decisions: A Comparison of Traditional Clinical Experience, Mannequin-Based Simulation, and Screen-Based Virtual Simulation - Journal of Nursing Regulation.
Haerling, K., Jolly-Morris, A., & Lovik, J. (2023). Exploring students’ experiences completing a COVID-19 transmission simulation.
Haerling, K. (2023). Exploring how traditional clinical, virtual simulation, and mannequin-based simulation inform students’ clinical judgments and nursing care.
January 22, 2023
Dr. Sunny Cheng Presenting at the International Early Psychosis Association Conference

Dr. Sunny Cheng, Assistant Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, has been invited to present her work titled "Partnering to Advance Teen Help-seeking (PATH): A Capacity Building Model among Academic Settings, Public Schools, and Healthcare Organizations for Addressing Mental Health Inequity in Schools" at the International Early Psychosis Association Conference taking place on July 10th -12th, 2023 in Switzerland.
January 19, 2023
Current UW Tacoma's Master of Nursing student, Juana Gallegos Receives the Prestigious UW Queen Silvia Nursing Award

Congratulations to current UW Tacoma's Master of Nursing student, Juana Gallegos on receiving the prestigious UW Queen Silvia Nursing Award for dementia care! Learn more about her innovative idea on nursing.uw.edu/article/announcing-2022-queen-silvia-nursing-award-winner/.
January 18, 2023
Bao Nguyen, BA Healthcare Leadership Alumna, Accepted to Medical School

Congratulations to Bao Nguyen on being accepted to the Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine - Southern Utah, Class of 2027! She plans to begin the program in Fall 2023.
January 13, 2023
Dr. Sunny Cheng and the Commencement Behavioral Health (CBH) Coalition Invited to Speak at Stadium High School

On January 13, 2023, Dr. Chieh (Sunny) Cheng, Assistant Professor at the UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership, and the Commencement Behavioral Health (CBH) Coalition, which was founded by our Master of Nursing alumna, Susan Ramos RN, MN, and Dr. Lucas McIntyre, were invited by Stadium High School to deliver talks and activities around youth mental health topics such as substance misconceptions. The message CBH delivered to the students was " We are excited to be here with you all! We believe that you, as a generation with greater access to science and information, are also living at a time where caring for your mental health and the mental health of others is much less stigmatized. Because of this, we hope you can be more aware of not only the risks of using with drugs and alcohol, but also hope you will find many more tools and ideas for positive ways of coping with stress, anxiety, depression, and all the other difficulties of life.” Learn more about Dr. Cheng and CBH work here: https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/news/dr-chieh-cheng-address-youth-mental-health-tacoma-public-schools-multicare. If you are willing to support the underserved population's mental health, please contact Dr. Cheng at ccsunny@uw.edu.
January 12, 2023
Current BA Healthcare Leadership Students: Kaela Jones and Kalea Velasco-Cosare Awarded the Financial Literacy Scholarship

Congratulations to current Bachelor or Arts in Healthcare Leadership students: Kaela Jones and Kalea Velasco-Cosare on being awarded the Financial Literacy Scholarship by UW Tacoma's Milgard School of Business and sponsored by South Credit Union!
December 21, 2022
Judy Jaanriksmais Soeum, BA HCL Alumna, Member of the NCQAC Team

Judy Jaanriksmais Soeum, BA HCL Alumna, did precepting with the Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission (NCQAC) during her senior year and got hired there after graduation to be part of the Student Nurse Preceptor Grant Program. Judy shared, "Our goals are to help reduce the shortage of healthcare settings for students by increasing the number of preceptors available for students which then in turn brings more nurses into the workforce with an increase in graduations for LPN, RN, and ARNP programs. Since working in this position, I’ve learned much about the importance of nursing and the operational side to the nursing world in government— this includes policy, rules, procedures, and research."
November 18, 2022
Dr. Sunny Cheng Receives the Innovation Grant from the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions

Congratulations to UW Tacoma School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership faculty, Dr. Sunny Cheng on being one of 12 awardees to receive the Innovation Grant from the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions! She is the Principal Investigator for her project, "Using teen Mental Health First Aid to address mental health inequity among school youth." Learn more here.
November 10, 2022
BA HCL Alumna, Bao Nguyen presented at APHA's 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

Bao Nguyen, an alumna of UW Tacoma's School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Leadership program, presented at the American Public Health Association (APHA) 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo in Boston on November 6th - 9th.
https://www.apha.org/Events-and-Meetings/Annual/Past-and-Future-Annual-Meetings