About the Author

Susan Bacorn Bastable earned her MEd in community health nursing and her EdD in curriculum and instruction in nursing at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1976 and 1979, respectively. She received her diploma in nursing from Hahnemann Hospital School of Nursing (now known as Drexel University of the Health Sciences) in Philadelphia in 1969 and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Syracuse University in 1972. Dr. Bastable was professor and founding chair of the Department of Nursing at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York for 11 years. She retired in May 2015 and was honored with the title of professor emerita. She began her academic career in 1979 as assistant professor at Hunter College, Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City, where she remained on the faculty for 2 years. From 1987 to 1989, she was assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Rhode Island. In 1990, she joined the faculty of the College of Nursing at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, where she was associate professor and chair of the undergraduate program for 14 years. In 2004, she assumed her leadership position at Le Moyne College and successfully established an RN-BS completion program; an innovative 4-year undergraduate dual-degree partnership in nursing (DDPN) supported by two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants in conjunction with the associate’s degree program at St. Joseph’s College of Nursing in Syracuse; a BS-MS bridge program; a postbaccalaureate RN-MS certificate program; a master of science program and three post-MS certificate programs with tracks in nursing education, nursing administration, and informatics; and most recently a family nurse practitioner (FNP) program as well as a post-MS FNP option. Dr. Bastable has taught undergraduate courses in nursing research, community health, and the role of the nurse as educator, and courses at the master’s and postmaster’s level in the academic faculty role, curriculum and program development, and educational assessment and evaluation. For 31 years, she served as consultant and external faculty member for Excelsior College (formerly known as Regents College of the University of the State of New York). Her clinical practice includes experiences in community health, oncology, rehabilitation and neurology, occupational health, and medical/surgical nursing. Dr. Bastable received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at Upstate Medical University and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Also, she was recognized for the Women in Leadership Award from the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award in Nursing Education from Teacher’s College, Columbia University. In addition to authoring six editions of Nurse as Educator, she is the author of two editions of Essentials of Patient Education and is the main editor of two editions of the textbook Health Professional as Educator. In retirement, she has been serving in the role of a nursing education consultant for national and regional program accreditations and assisting colleges of nursing across New York and other states in replicating the unique 1+2+1 dual-degree partnership model mentioned herein, the first of its kind in the country. For years she has been an involved member of numerous nursing education advisory boards. Currently, she also has been an active volunteer for 10 years with Honor Flight Syracuse, an organization that flies veterans to Washington, DC to visit the war memorials erected in their honor. She is the proud parent of two Navy officer veterans and the grandparent to three beautiful grandchildren. Deborah Sopczyk, PhD, RN earned a baccalaureate in nursing from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, an MS in nursing from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the State University of New York at Albany. Dr. Sopczyk has over 30 years of experience in higher education and is currently the Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Excelsior College in Albany, NY. She has also taught at D'Youville and Trocaire College, both in Buffalo NY. Dr. Sopczyk is an expert in adult and distance education. Her clinical practice areas include child health, pediatric oncology and family violence. Pamela Gramet, P.T., Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy Education at Upstate Medical University. During her tenure at Upstate, she has also served in a variety of administrative positions including Department Vice-Chair, Department Chair, and Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education. Dr. Gramet earned her Ph.D. in Child and Family Studies from Syracuse University, her M.S. in Education from Stony Brook University and her B.S. in Physical Therapy, magna cum laude, from Ithaca College. She holds advanced certifications in neurodevelopmental treatment, teaching improvement, clinical instruction, and board leadership. Dr. Gramet has over 30 years of teaching experience and her areas of expertise include education theory and practice, clinical education, neurologic physical therapy, professionalism and complimentary and alternative medicine. Dr. Gramet was a member of the American Physical Therapy Association task force that developed the first national Clinical Performance Instruments (CPI’s) for assessment of physical therapist and physical therapist assistant student clinical performance. She was also a founding member of the New York Physical Therapy Clinical Education Consortium. Over the years, Dr. Gramet developed and taught numerous workshops on clinical teaching skills for clinical instructors. She was instrumental in developing the curriculums for both the Master’s Degree Program, and the Professional and Post Professional Doctoral Physical Therapy Programs at Upstate Medical University. She has served as a curriculum consultant for several graduate physical therapy programs. Dr. Gramet is a recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and received Certificates of Appreciation from the New York Physical Therapy Association and the American Physical Therapy Association. She is also a recipient of the Outstanding Academic Coordinator of Clinical Education Award and a Certificate of Excellence from the Clinical Education Consortium. Dr. Gramet’s research interests include education, clinical teaching, and the professional and psychosocial aspects of physical therapy. Karen Jacobs, Ed.D., OTR/L, CPE, FAOTA is a past president and vice president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is a 2005 recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Akureyri in Akuryeri, Iceland; the 2009 recipient of the Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) and received the Award of Merit from the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2003. Dr. Jacobs is a clinical professor of occupational therapy and the program director of the distance education post-professional occupational therapy programs at Boston University. She has expertise in the development and instruction of on-line and on-campus graduate courses. In addition, she has faculty appointments at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York, USA and the University of Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Dr. Jacobs earned a doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts, a Master of Science at Boston University, and a Bachelor of Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Jacobs’ research examines the interface between the environment and human capabilities. In particular, she examines the individual factors and environmental demands associated with increased risk of functional limitations among populations of university and middle school aged students, particularly in notebook computing, backpack use, and the use of games such as WiiFit (http://people.bu.edu/kjacobs/). Most recently, she is co-developing with Dr. Nancy Baker at the University of Pittsburgh, the Telerehabilitation Computer Ergonomics System (tele-CES) for computer users with arthritis. The tele-CES is a remote systematic ergonomics program aimed at substantially reducing work disability among workers with any type of arthritis. In addition to being an occupational therapist, Dr. Jacobs is also a certified professional ergonomist (CPE) and the founding editor-in-chief of the international, interdisciplinary journal WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation (IOS Press, The Netherlands), which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Dr. Jacobs is the chairperson of the Ergonomics for Children in Educational Environments Technical Committee (ECEE) for the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) and the program chair for the Environment Design Technical Group for the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES). Dr. Jacobs has a small business which provides consulting services in ergonomics and entrepreneurship.