Janie Heath, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN

Dr. Heath was formerly an endowed professor of nursing and the chief academic officer at the University of Virginia and Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly the Medical College of Georgia and now Georgia Regents University). She has provided academic leadership for Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Critical-Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Programs at Georgetown University in Washington and at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Heath earned a MS with a clinical nurse specialist focus from the University of Oklahoma and her post-master’s with an acute-adult nurse practitioner focus from the University of South Carolina. She completed a PhD in Nursing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

She has more than 38 years of acute and critical care nursing experience in various positions from staff to administration to advanced practice and academia. She has been awarded more than $12 million for academic and/or research initiatives, generated more than 150 publications and abstracts, served on numerous regional and national task forces for tobacco control and advanced practice nursing initiatives. Her primary research program of study involves workforce development using the Rx for Change: Clinician-Assisted Tobacco Cessation Curriculum to effectively intervene with tobacco-dependent populations in acute and primary care settings.

In addition, Dr. Heath served as a member of the board of directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), served as the inaugural chair for the Beacons of Leadership Initiative in Pursuit of Healthy Work Environments, a 30-hospital-wide collaborative in the Washington–Baltimore, Maryland, area for the Greater Washington Area Chapter of AACN and founded the Nurses for Tobacco Control national coalition for nurse educators.