Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree Completion Program for RNs

College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago

Curriculum Development Faculty

Nancy DeVilder, MS, RN

Nancy DeVilder is Clinical Faculty for the College of Nursing at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She has been a part of the Advancing Public Health Nursing Education (APHNE) Grant, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), as a co-investigator for the past 4 years. Previously, she was involved with the HRSA-funded Creating Career Trajectories with a Population Focus Grant. She has presented at the Illinois Public Health Association's Nursing Section: Reviewing the Evidence Base of Illinois Healthcare Priorities in 2008 and conducted a poster presentation at the American Public Health Association annual 2006 meeting: Rural Mentored BSN Program-Overcoming Challenges Recruiting Minority Populations.

Nancy DeVilder's previous work includes management and quality improvements activities in home care. She has published articles on hospital readmissions after home care and was involved in creating clinical pathways for home care patients. As one of the co-investigators of the APHNE Grant, she received the 2008 American Public Health Association's Lillian Wald Service Award.

Pamela Hill, PhD, RN, CBE, FAAN

Dr. Hill is Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Nursing Regional Program, located in Moline, IL. She is also Professor in the Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science at the College of Nursing.

Dr. Hill teaches Research and Statistics at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her doctoral work and research focuses on breastfeeding in mothers of term and preterm infants. Most recently, she has studied milk volume in mothers who are pump-dependent and has been federally funded on four related projects. She has authored more than 50 articles and serves as a journal reviewer for Journal of Human Lactation, JOGNN: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, Pediatrics, among others.

Dr. Hill was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2002.

Gail Keenan, PhD, RN

Dr. Keenan is the Director of Nursing Informatics Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing. Her academic career has focused on education and research around building and implementing electronic health records that support safe and effective communication across the interdisciplinary team. She is the principal investigator of the HANDS project and currently funded by AHRQ (7-R01 HS01 5054 02) for the study HIT Support for Safe Nursing Care. The study focuses on understanding the factors necessary to successfully implement a standardized process and tool for continuously updating the patient's plan of care and using the plan to structure hand-off communication. The HANDS plan provides a current and consistent "big picture" story of the patient's care (and progress toward goals) that can be made available wherever the patient presents and connected to any Electronic Health Record (vendor neutral). The HANDS project is nationally recognized and Dr. Keenan is actively involved in key related professional and policy making organizations and initiatives.

Dr. Shahnaz Khavidi, CRNP, MSN, ND

Dr. Khavidi has many years of experience as a Certified Nurse Practitioner. She worked as a CNP and unit manager at Northwestern University and was the first to develop the Nurse Practitioner services at Weiss Memorial Hospital and Evanston Hospital. She managed patients' stays at the hospital, from admission to discharge, without the use of medical residents. The service was provided in collaboration with the attending physician. The program was a benefit not only to medical residents, who as a result carried a lower case load, but also to the patients that did not wish medical residents to care for them. Also, the program significantly benefited attending physicians who wished their private patients to be managed by CNPs.

Dr. Khavidi also worked for many years in different nursing homes as a CNP. She was responsible for managing patients' stays at the nursing home while collaborating with the medical director. Her passion is older adults' health and complementary and alternative medicine, and is teaching Concept and Process in Older Adult Health. She also teaches Complementary and Alternative Therapies for nurses at the UIC College of Nursing. She taught NUSC 375 and NUSC 424 in previous years in a lecture discussion format. She coordinated and taught NUSC 375, NUSC 424 and NUSC 310 in an online format, which were offered for the first time at the UIC undergraduate nursing program.

Dr. Khavidi is a member of several professional organizations in the fields of Integrative Medicine and Conventional Medicine, including the Chicagoland Gerontological Advance Practice Nurses (CGAPN). Dr. Khavidi's practice focuses on geriatric care and integrative medicine. Also, she does homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, reiki healing, spiritual counseling, and hospice and palliative care. Dr. Khavidi is the founder and owner of TLC Healthcare, Ltd, where she is an Integrated Health Practitioner.

Catherine Tredway, RN, MS, MBA

Catherine "Kate" Tredway is a faculty member with UIC College of Nursing, based at the Quad Cities Regional Campus in Moline, IL. Kate is in her twelfth year of teaching in the RN-BSN Completion Program. She has been awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award eight times; the UIC Quad Cities Regional Campus Distinguished Alumni Award, and the university-wide Silver Circle Award for teaching excellence.

Kate teaches a Nursing Concepts course that asks nurses to consider and articulate what nursing truly is; a Community Health course that focuses nursing attention on populations of people outside the hospital setting; and a Nursing Leadership and Management course that focuses on the role of the nurse manager. In addition, she has taught a Nursing History course, with an emphasis on nursing image and the progression of nursing education and service. Kate has been involved in the early stages of course development for Global Campus and the teaching of Global Campus online courses; and has, along with Global Campus instructional designers, co-authored publications on the transition of traditional face-to-face courses in nursing to the online format and learning environment.

Kate's nursing specialty area is Community Health Nursing and, outside her duties in teaching, does volunteer consulting on program development and evaluation for various community health organizations.