Decker School dean, professor to be inducted as American Academy of Nursing fellows

Mario
 R. Ortiz, dean of Binghamton University’s Decker School of Nursing, and Melissa 
Ann Sutherland ’97, MS ’01, professor of nursing and acting director of the Kresge Center 
for Nursing Research, have been selected as 2018 fellows by the American 
Academy of Nursing (AAN) in recognition of their 
significant contributions to nursing and healthcare. Fellowship in the AAN is
 one of the highest honors bestowed in the nursing profession.

Ortiz and Sutherland are among the 195 highly distinguished nurses chosen this year to join the AAN, which is
 composed of more than 2,500 of nursing’s most accomplished leaders in education,
 management, practice, policy and research. With the addition of this newest group, 
AAN members represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 29 countries.

Ortiz and Sutherland will be inducted during the AAN’s annual policy conference, Transforming Health, Driving Policy, which will be held Nov. 1-3 in 
Washington, D.C. They join current AAN fellow Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, who serves 
as a visiting professor and scholar within Binghamton’s Decker School.

Decker School of Nursing Dean Mario Ortiz is a board-certified community health nurse specialist and family nurse 
practitioner who joined Binghamton University in July 2016. He has a strong record
 of success in developing healthcare programs and being at the forefront of
 establishing nurse-led, patient-centered medical homes (a team-based model of care designed to maximize patients’ health outcomes) 
as primary care clinics. He has garnered endowments and grants to support
 community care clinics and education, as well as established and nurtured
 critical partnerships with healthcare providers and policy-makers.

Melissa 
Ann Sutherland is a board-certified family nurse practitioner who recently 
joined Binghamton University. Her research, funded by the National Institutes 
of Health and the American Nurses Foundation, has advanced knowledge of 
interpersonal violence among young women and provided groundbreaking evidence 
of the multiple system-level factors that influence healthcare providers’
 violence-screening behaviors. Her work extends beyond the United States by 
contributing to knowledge development and the nursing profession in South 
American countries. As a Fulbright Fellow in Chile, she spearheaded the creation
 of a family nurse practitioner program and launched a sustainable mentoring 
program to increase research capacity. Sutherland is an alumna of the Decker School, having earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 1997 and a master’s degree in nursing in 2001.

AAN fellow selection criteria include evidence of substantial contributions to 
nursing and healthcare, and sponsorship by two current academy fellows.
 Applicants are reviewed by a panel of elected and appointed fellows, and 
selection is based, in part, on the extent the nominee’s nursing career has 
influenced health policies and the health and well-being of all. New fellows are 
eligible use the FAAN credential (fellow of the American Academy of Nursing)
 after their induction ceremony.