Jean Putnam, the System Chief Nurse Executive for Baptist Health South Florida in Miami, Florida is responsible for the practice of over 8,000 nurses and 2,000 nursing support caregivers in an integrated health system of 12 hospitals, 200+ outpatient sites of care, and 500+ advanced practice nurses. Prior to that Jean was the Network Chief Nursing Officer for Community Health Network in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jean’s legacies include creating a culture of being the “Best Place to Practice Nursing” by achieving very high nurse engagement scores, as well as 99th percentile 1st year retention of new nurses. She is considered an expert in workforce planning, building pipelines for future nurses, and securing millions of dollars in grant funding for innovation and use of technology in nursing. She believes in the power (and responsibility) of nurses to change the world. She commits time to re-imagining nursing health policy and revolutionizing the way nurses practice in numerous settings. Her innovative spirit has led to several grants and awards, including the Patient Experience Innovator of the Year Award from the Millennium Alliance, the President’s Award and Pillar Award for Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the Indiana State Nurses Association, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue University, and the Excellence in Leadership Award from Executive Women in Healthcare.

Dr. Natalie Bermudez has been a registered nurse for 24 years and is currently serving as a Nurse Scientist for Baptist Health, a large healthcare system in South Florida. She began her nursing career with an ASN degree earned from Miami-Dade College. She went on to earn three more nursing-focused degrees from Florida Atlantic University (FAU); BSN in 2004, MSN in 2009, and PhD in 2020. Dr. Bermudez has been a member of AACN Palm Beach County Chapter (PBCC) in 2010 and has served as Board Member in 2011-2012, Chapter President-Elect in 2012-2013, Chapter President in 2013-2014, and AACN Region 7 Chapter Advisor from 2016-2019. She is currently a member of AACN Palm Beach County Chapter’s Professional Practice Committee, as a member an EBP-Research consultant. Dr. Bermudez has presented at local and national venues on several professional nursing topics, such as authentic leadership, healthy work environment, compassion fatigue/compassion satisfaction, research-EBP seminars, moral comfort/moral distress, and horizontal violence/bullying. She recently celebrated her 23rd wedding anniversary with her husband (Adriel), who has supported her in all her endeavors and makes all of her accomplishments possible. Dr. Bermudez’s hobbies include playing the piano, ukulele, and singing (for fun, not professionally), reading/Bible study, in-line skating, woodworking, spending time with God and her family, and spoiling her 85-pound Pitbull-Lab – Chewy (aka Gentle Giant).

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Bonnette Villalba Webb is an internationally educated nurse from the Philippines and has been a practicing RN for 34 years. She obtained her BSN degree at the Far Eastern University in Manila, Philippines. She completed her MSN in nursing focusing on Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety at Grand Canyon University based in Arizona. She was a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. She has extensive clinical experience in the acute care setting. She was recognized as the 2012 Telemetry Nurse of the year at Bethesda Memorial Hospital. She assumed many roles in her career as a nurse including leadership, academic setting, and Clinical Account Management in the travel nurse industry. She was awarded as the company’s Account Manager of the First Quarter, 2018 and 2018 Account Manager of the Year. She has been a Progressive Care Certified Nurse (PCCN-K) for 11 years. She is currently employed as a Market Clinical Educator for the Palm Beach Health Network and an Adjunct Clinical Instructor with Palm Beach State College. She is a committed volunteer for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses for 16 years, served as a Hospital Ambassador, Board of Directors for two terms in 2014-2017. She then served as Chapter President of the AACN Palm Beach County Chapter in 2018-2019. She currently serves as AACN National Ambassador and as the Chapter Advisory Team (CAT) for Region 7 Florida, serving 11 AACN Chapters. She co-authored a recently published article by Florida Distance Learning Association “The Future of Nursing Leadership: Patient-Centered Care Supported by e-Learned Artificial Intelligence”. She also co-authored the exemplar for the Chapter Circle of Excellence award for Leadership Development for the AACN PBC She is very passionate about mentoring other nurses and has a strong commitment to building new nurses as her contribution to the future generation of the nursing profession. She has a deep love for authentic leadership and is a committed leader as she recently joined the John Maxwell Leadership Certified Team, to be a Certified Coach, DISC Trainer and Certified Speaker. Her mantra in life was “One Nurse at a Time” and now “One Person at a Time”.

Jennifer Paciletti is an advanced heart failure nurse practitioner for HCA Florida JFK Hospital. She holds a Master’s of Science degrees in both nursing education and adult gerontology. She helped to develop the advanced heart failure and durable LVAD program in 2015 at JFK and works as the inpatient APP managing many high-risk cardiac patients with acute MI, cardiogenic shock, acute heart failure, and advanced therapy patients. She has over 25 years of experience in critical care, cardiothoracic surgery, clinical education and advanced heart failure. Her passion is to educate other healthcare professionals about heart failure, cardiogenic shock and mechanical circulatory support devices.

Kendra graduated from University of Texas in Arlington in 1985 with her BSN. She successfully completed and graduated from Parkland Memorial Hospital’s Critical Care and Trauma Internship. She has worked in the Surgery/Trauma, Thoracic and Neurosurgical ICU at Parkland Memorial Hospital as a staff nurse and nurse educator. Kendra has been a manager on a trauma floor and the Director of Critical Care at Zale Lipshy University Hospital in Dallas. She has her Master’s of Nursing from Texas Women’s University as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and has worked as a CNS in the Surgical Trauma ICU. Kendra is currently the Director of the Marcus Neuroscience Institute of the Neuroscience Programs which is associated with Boca Raton Regional Hospital. Kendra has presented seminars throughout the United States, Canada and Oman. She has also published multiple chapters and books including Adult CCRN Review, 2nd ed. Trauma Certification Review book 2nd ed., and CNRN Review Book published by Springer. Kendra has been known to be engaging and supportive to nurses desiring certification.

Sari Viitaniemi MSN, RN, CCRN, TCRN has over 25 years of trauma nursing experience. She has worked in various roles in the Level 1 Trauma Center and currently serves as the Clinical Nurse Leader for Trauma and Neuro Services, as well as the nurse manager for the Trauma Resuscitation Team. Sari is an active volunteer with the national and local AACN. She is a member of the PBCAACN Professional Practice Committee and serves as the Symposium committee director. Sari has led several evidence-based nursing practice projects and enjoys teaching nurses about scientific inquiry in the nursing field.

Ms. Paciletti is a Florida Atlantic University alumni who resides in West Palm Beach. Ms. Paciletti graduated nursing school with her BSN in 2022 and also with an undergraduate certificate in research. Ms. Paciletti began her nursing career working in a highly acute MSICU and CVICU right after obtaining her RN license. She collaborates with multidisciplinary teams in this setting to advocate for our most critically ill patients. She has worked at HCA Florida JFK hospital for 2 years to date. Ms. Paciletti is also a member of AACN National and Local Palm Beach chapter and now too serves as an Ambassador for the Palm Beach County AACN Chapter.

Michaela has been a nurse for over 12 years in critical care. She is CCRN and SCRN certified and has been a very active member of the AACN-PBC county for the past 10 years, serving as ambassador, board member, treasurer, and past president in 2022-2023. She has a passion for education, process improvement and leadership and is currently the Director of Staff Development at Wellington Regional Medical Center. She loves sharing knowledge and preparing nurses with tools to succeed in the difficult and ever-changing landscape of healthcare. However, her greatest achievement has been being a mother to three beautiful children, Logan 6, Ava 4, and Emma 7 months old.

Pua Cooper is a seasoned nurse with over 34 years of leadership & clinical experience. She currently serves as the Corporate AVP for Baptist Health South Florida where she is responsible for Quality, Accreditation, Patient Safety, & Clinical Informatics. She holds a Master’s of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a specialty in Nursing Informatics and is a Certified Healthcare CIO (CHCIO) and Certified Digital Healthcare Executive (CDH-E). She is an active member and fellow of the Health Information Management System Society (HIMSS). She has served on the South Florida Chapter’s Board of Directors in various capacities over the last 9 years. In 2020, she was recognized as the HIMSS National Chapter Leader of the Year recognizing significant leadership and contributions to HIMSS Chapters as the chapter’s President. She has spoken at various local and national conferences on how to leverage technology to improve organizational performance and clinical practice. When not working, she is the proud mother of 3 thirteen-year-old girls and can be most often found at their soccer field & dance studio.