Martha Norton Hill, RN, PhD, FAAN, Dean at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland, is a world-renowned researcher, educator, and nursing leader. Internationally known for developing and testing strategies to improve hypertension care and control among urban, underserved African-Americans, Dr. Hill has served as the only non-physician president of the American Heart Association in its 80+ year history - placing her in one of the highest regarded positions in the field of cardiology. Among her honors, Dr. Hill was presented the Nell J. Watts Lifetime Achievement in Nursing Award from Sigma Theta Tau International in 2003.

Diana Russell, RN, MS, Vice President of Patient Care Services at El Camino Hospital, has over 30 years of nursing and nursing administration experience. With her leadership, El Camino Hospital became the first Bay Area hospital to be awarded Magnet™ designation, the nation's highest honor for excellence in nursing care. El Camino Hospital is ranked among the top 5% in the nation in overall clinical performance.

Shirley Chater, RN, PhD, FAAN has risen to every occasion throughout her career of high-profile positions with a commitment to fairness, cooperative leadership and challenging the rules. Dr. Chater served as U.S. Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, one of the largest and most complex federal programs, was President of Texas Woman’s University, and served as UC San Francisco’s Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. Honored in 2000 as a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing, Dr. Chater currently chairs the national advisory committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow Program.

Deloras Jones, RN, MS is the President and Executive Director of the California Institute for Nursing & Health Care where she is working with nurse leaders across the state to craft a master plan for nursing. Formerly Chief Nursing Executive of Kaiser Permanente, Ms. Jones has also been instrumental in developing the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition (CalNOC) and the California Strategic Planning Committee for Nursing.

Linda Aiken, RN, PhD, FAAN, FRCN has conducted innovative health services research that has greatly influenced nursing policies and practices.  Dr. Aiken is currently the director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, and is The Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing, Professor of Sociology, and Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.  She leads the International Hospital Outcomes Consortium, studying the impact of nursing on patient outcomes in eight countries.  Among the many honors and awards for her leadership utilizing performance measures to demonstrate relationships between nursing care and patient outcomes, Dr. Aiken was selected as the 2006 recipient of the William B. Graham Prize for Health Services Research, considered the highest distinction that researchers in the health service field can achieve.

Mary Foley, RN, MS is the Associate Director of the Center for Research and Nursing Innovation at the University of California, San Francisco and is actively involved with the California Nursing Outcomes Coalition, the largest ongoing nursing quality measurement repository in the nation.  Ms. Foley is immediate Past President of the American Nurses Association and was previously employed at the Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco.

Claire Fagin, RN, PhD, FAAN is a nationally recognized leader in the field of nursing for her efforts with consumers and health professionals to create new paradigms for access and quality.  A recipient of the American Nurses Association Honorary Recognition Award, the most prestigious honor awarded in nursing, and named a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing for her extraordinary contributions to nursing and health care, Dr. Fagin continues to lead and inspire the nursing profession.

Patricia McFarland, MS, RN is the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of California Nurse Leaders, representing over seventy percent of the state’s nurse executives, and an executive officer with the California Nursing Students Association.