Principle Investigator
Kay Daugherty, RN, PhD, CNAA, is the Chief Nursing Officer of Denver Health. Her career as a professional nurse spans 3+ decades in multiple health care setttings ranging from private to academic to public safety net hospitals. Her clinical experience is equally diverse and has spanned many specialty areas including Critical Care, Emergency Services, Perioperative Services, and Ambulatory care. She has also had managerial and administrative experience in all these areas, as well as in all components of primary care, secondary and tertiary care hospitals. In terms of her educational experience, Kay holds bachelors, masters, & doctoral degrees in nursing with the latter two degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and University of Colorado, respectively. Kay has been at Denver Health since September of 2000 and continually strives to ensure that the Department of Nursing has a work environment that nurses find collaborative, supportive, stimulating, and rewarding and ultimately attracts and retains a great nursing staff.
Research Coordinator & Co-Principle Investigator
Catherine Dingley, RN, FNP, PhDc is the Coordinator of Nursing Research at Denver Health Medical Center. She has over 25 years experience in nursing with a broad clinical background in critical care, cardiac rehab, high risk obstetrics, patient education, and most recently as an FNP in outpatient and inpatient settings. She has practiced through out the U.S. and overseas in Scotland and Japan. Her research experience includes a variety of focus areas such as: women with chronic illness and quality of life. She has also been involved in funded projects focusing on cardiac rehab, consumer perspectives on nursing home choice, hospital surge capacity in mass casualties, and patient safety. Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree from University of West Florida, a master’s in nursing from Midwestern State University, Texas, and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where she previously taught clinical courses. She is currently an affiliate faculty for Regis University. Catherine.Dingley@dhha.org
Education Coordinator
Rebecca Persing, RN, DNP brings to the grant team over 20 years of nursing experience in direct care, case management, education, management and research. She holds a bachelor's degree in Zoology from Miami University (Ohio) and is a graduate of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing (Case Western Reserve University). She has held faculty positions at both FPB and the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, School of Nursing. Her extensive clinical experience has been in the areas of women and infant care and corrections nursing. She currently is the Nursing Project Manager, Denver Health Medical Center (Denver, CO).
Research Nurse
Mary Derieg, FNP, DNP is a recent graduate of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program - Family Nurse Practitioner track - at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Mary started her nursing career at Denver Health on an adult acute medical/ surgical/ telemetry/ oncology unit and transitioned to a research/ EBP/ informatics position during her graduate studies. It has been her great pleasure to be part of the grant team since the early stages of proposal development, and she hopes this toolkit will benefit other healthcare providers and keep patients safer!
Research Assistant
Denise Johnson, BS brings over a decade of patient-side healthcare experience to her role as a research assistant. Denise recently completed her Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Administration, and has been an integral part of the research team in data collection, management, analysis, and website development. Denise plans to return to school in the near future to complete an MBA and continue to improve patient care both at the bedside and at the system level.
Denise.Johnson@dhha.org