Tara Baker began her career as a patient care tech in an emergency department setting. After earning an A.A.S. in nursing from John Tyler Community College, she practiced nursing in the Cardiovascular ICU and emergency departments in Richmond, Virginia for ten years. She went on to work as a nurse investigator for the Office of the Attorney General where she led a team of investigators and partnered with federal agents to combat healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse. Baker then worked as the risk manager, patient safety officer, equity compliance coordinator and ethics and compliance officer at John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, Virginia. In 2018, Baker joined VCU Health Tappahannock (formally Riverside Tappahannock Hospital) as the director of the emergency department. She earned her B.S. (Nursing) in May 2016 and her M.S. (Nursing Administration and Leadership) in May 2019, both Magna cum Laude from VCU School of Nursing. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Nursing Practice at VCU. 
 
Baker is passionate about supporting and growing nurses and places an emphasis on creating a just culture to foster patient safety initiatives. After successfully demonstrating her leadership in the emergency department, she was promoted to chief nursing officer of VCU Health Tappahannock Hospital in December 2021. She resides in Hanover with her husband and four children and enjoys spending time with her family and reading in her spare time.

Jennifer Brown has been an RN for 17 years, starting in medical surgical nursing and endoscopy and later transitioned to the OR. She has grown into leadership by starting as a charge nurse and enjoys what she does and wants to make a difference for the future. Brown is married with a daughter, and enjoys baking, walks and the beach.

Garland is a native of Richmond, Virginia who received an undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University in 1982 and a master’s in Health Administration from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1988. As chief of health impact, Garland is responsible for building programs and partnerships to improve the health of populations and communities served by VCU Health System. Prior to this appointment, she served in various leadership roles including vice president for health policy and community relations, vice president for community outreach, director of Ambulatory Care Services, and director of planning. In addition to her health system responsibilities, she has held positions within Virginia Commonwealth University including director of community outreach for the VCU Institute for Women's Health, administrative director of the VCU Center on Health Disparities, and director of the VCU Office of Health Innovation.  Garland is the recipient of several awards including the American College of Health Care Executives Regent’s Early Career Healthcare Executive Award, the VCU Presidential Award for Community Multicultural Enrichment (Administrator Award), VCU/MCV School of Medicine Dean’s Award for Community Service, YWCA of Richmond Outstanding Woman of the Year Award in the field of Health/Science, the VCU Department of Health Administration Alumni of the Year Award, and the First African Baptist Church Community Leader’s Award.  She has participated in Leadership Metro Richmond, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems’ (America’s Essential Hospitals) ambulatory fellows program, the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, and LEAD Virginia. Garland is a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives and a member of SisterFund, an African American Women’s Giving Circle.  She serves on the boards of the MCV Foundation, University Health Services-Professional Education Programs and the Institute for Public Health Innovation. She is currently president of the American Heart Association, Mid-Atlantic Affiliate. Garland is married to her best friend of 35 years, Chris Garland, and has two amazing daughters, Christian and Cameran.

Emily Gunn is the nursing coordinator for the A.A.S. Nursing program at Reynolds Community College in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to her current position, she served as a clinical coordinator at Northern Virginia Community College and Saint Louis University.

Gunn earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science in Nursing from The Ohio State University. She began her career at the University of Virginia working on a medicine unit advancing to the role of unit senior clinician. She has taught in both A.D.N. and B.S.N. programs including Allegheny Community College, Columbus State Community College, The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. Her areas of interest include building community partnerships and utilizing innovative models of clinical education. She is looking forward to serving as a peer evaluator for the Accreditation Commission in Nursing Education (ACEN). Gunn is married with four children and lives in Henrico, Virginia.

Mary Hardin is the vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at VCU Community Memorial Hospital (CMH). She received her B.S.N. from Barton College and her M.S.N. in Leadership and Management from Walden University. Hardin has been employed at CMH for 33 years with over 25 years of experience in leadership and management. She was the director of oncology for 20 years and under her leadership led the oncology program to providing full comprehensive services in medical and radiation oncology with accreditations from the American College of Surgeons-Commission on Cancer and the American College of Radiology- Radiation Oncology. Hardin has been successful in implementing a nurse driven palliative care program for acute care collaborating with VCU’s telemed palliative care services. She enjoys singing and dancing in her spare time and always enjoys a good conversation and a cup of coffee.

Erin Keister, RN, M.S.N., CPHQ, CPPS, NE-BC, is the division chief nurse executive for HCA Healthcare’s Capital Division. Prior to her current role, she worked in the division for over ten years in various capacities, including chief nursing officer at Chippenham Hospital and at John Randolph Medical Center. She began her career as a bedside nurse in 1997 and held many direct care nursing positions early in her career. She also has an extensive background in quality, in both hospital and division settings.

Keister earned her B.S.N. from Radford University and her M.S.N. from Jefferson College of Health Sciences. She currently serves as a commissioner of nursing policy and practice for the Virginia Nurses Association and is an active as an advisory board member for ECPI, John Tyler nursing program and South University.

She in lives in Midlothian with her two children.

Jill Kennedy currently serves as the chief nurse executive for the Richmond Market and Atlantic Group of Bon Secours Mercy Health. She began her career in 1988 as a staff nurse and has worked in various clinical and progressive nursing leadership positions. Throughout her career with Bon Secours, Kennedy has served in several executive roles to include experience as the Chief Nursing Officer in acute facilities as well as ambulatory/medical groups. These experiences have strengthened her passion in understanding and developing professional nursing. She understands the science, business, and art of creating a highly collaborative person-centered care model. In addition, Kennedy has a strong business and operational acumen that allows her to drive initiatives to create changes and achieve results in operational efficiencies and clinical effectiveness. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the VCU School of Nursing and her Master of Science in Health Administration from the VCU College of Health Professions. She is a board-certified nurse executive with the American Nurses Credentialing Center and a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Danny Mallory is a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner with upcoming placement in the Medical Respiratory ICU at VCUHS, currently working as a Registered Nurse in Diagnostic Radiology. He originally obtained his Bachelors in Science in Health Services Administration from James Madison University in 2008, and then spent 3.5 years in project management working for Verisk Health, a Medicare consulting firm providing analytical services to third party vendors providing claims to CMS. Mallory later obtained international experience after completing an international project management internship with BMW in Shenyang, China where he assisted in the construction of a newly developed production press shop in 2013. Mr. Mallory decided to move his experience in health care to a direct provider role and obtained a bachelor’s in nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015. He has gained experience in various clinical settings including the emergency room, radiology, and acute care surgery in an inpatient capacity. Mallory later completed a Master of Science in Nursing program with a focus on Acute-Care in 2020 from the University of Virginia. He has also had a hand in community involvement with organizations such as The Giving Heart Foundation, a Richmond based non-profit providing toiletries and donated goods to low-income communities in Richmond, Virginia. He also served as Richmond chapter president of the James Madison University alumni association where he implemented programs to provide scholarships to local students, as well as developed a volunteer program serving veterans at the Polytrauma Transitional Unit of the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center, currently in its eighth year of service. He resides in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and two sons.

Mammone's more than 30-year nursing career began at the Montreal Neurological Institute as an acute care RN on a neurosurgical unit. She continued her nursing career in acute, critical, and ambulatory care nursing in Lausanne, Switzerland, Montreal, Canada, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. After ten years of practicing acute care bedside nursing, Mammone accepted her first administrative nurse position at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, as a nurse manager of a Neuroscience Acute Care Unit. She later found her way to the west coast and began working at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center as a nurse manager of a Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit and Neuroscience Step-Down Unit. During her 14-year stint at UCSF Medical Center, she undertook progressive nursing leadership positions—including director of Adult Nursing Services and executive director of Patient Safety and Quality for the UCSF Health System.

Mammone’s administrative nursing experience is extensive, and she has served as Chief Nursing Officer at the University of Virginia Health System, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. In August 2022, Mammone was delighted to return to Virginia and joined the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center (VCUMC) as the Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services. She was named as Chief Nursing Executive for VCU Health in April 2023.

She received her B.S.N. from the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. She is highly engaged and committed to supporting clinicians in delivering the highest quality of patient care, outcomes, patient experience, and patient safety. She loves nothing more than to advocate for patients, nurses, and the nursing profession.

Amy Popovich graduated from the University of Virginia with her B.S. in nursing and her M.S. in community and public health nursing. Through her undergraduate community clinical experience in public housing in Charlottesville, Virginia, she was immediately hooked on bringing health and education into communities by building relationships with patients and families. In 2009 after five years of inpatient hospital nursing at VCU, she took a position with Richmond City Health District where she was charged with establishing health clinics in public housing. Popovich has been the program director for the Resource Centers since its inception and became the nurse manager for the Richmond City Health District in 2018. Ultimately, the Richmond City and Henrico County Health Districts came under a shared leadership structure with Popovich as the nurse manager for both districts. In addition to these roles, she also spent four semesters as adjunct faculty for the VCU School of Nursing, encouraging other nurses to dive into public health. She lives with her husband and three children in Church Hill, a neighborhood in the east end of Richmond.

Jeniece Roane holds a master’s degree in nursing administration and leadership, is certified as a nurse executive and is currently pursuing her doctorate in nursing. Her clinical nursing career started 27 years ago in pediatrics and pediatric critical care. Roane joined VCU Health System in 1997 at the bedside as a pediatric critical care nurse, progressing through various leadership roles across women’s and children’s health including nurse manager, nurse educator, nursing director, associate chief nursing officer. Currently, she serves as the vice president of operations for the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. She is very familiar with the needs of the communities and patients and, in her personal time, advocates for the communities’ children as an active board member of the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Roane's strong leadership and passion, her advocacy for putting patients and families first and her dedication to taking care of each other contributes to the advancement of nursing practice across the continuum.

Garret Westlake is leading the transformation of VCU into one of the nation’s foremost universities for cross-disciplinary collaboration and innovation. As executive director of the VCU da Vinci Center for Innovation, Westlake advances university-wide student innovation and entrepreneurship through curriculum as well as through curated experiential education opportunities. He is also a visiting scholar at Northern Michigan University’s SISU Institute for Innovation and Educational Transformation. As a technology entrepreneur, Westlake founded a social impact company that employed individuals with autism in STEM. Prior to joining VCU, he served as the associate dean of student entrepreneurship for Arizona State University’s #1 ranked Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He has worked closely with Ashoka U, the Clinton Global Initiative University, and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Students and startups under his mentorship have been named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for Healthcare Innovation, been awarded Rhodes Scholarships, named Resolution Project Fellows, and have been accepted to SXSW and Y Combinator. Westlake is also a certified facilitator of design thinking.

Bridget Wilson provides leadership as the dean of nursing and allied health at Brightpoint Community College. In addition, she serves on the Brightpoint Foundation Board and John Randolph Medical Center board of trustees. She has a passion for empowering youth and college students in the community to reach their higher educational goals. Wilson herself has an A.A.S. in nursing from the College of Saint Catherine, a B.S.N. from Metropolitan State University, a M.S.N. from Indiana State University, a M.Div. from Virginia Union University, and a Ph.D. from Capella University. She believes the greatest reward is helping students on their academic journey, observing them being successful and achieving their dreams. She is an active member of several social organizations and enjoys working in her community.