 Name and Credentials: Suzanne S. Prevost, RN, PhD, COI
Candidate Position: President Elect
Professional Background
As Associate Dean for Practice, I serve as the liaison between our College and over 100 clinical and educational institutions. I also manage faculty practice and continuing education activities, and teach in our DNP program. My background includes experience as an APN, nursing administrator, researcher, professor, and journal editor.
In what ways are you qualified for this position and what leadership experience do you have in the honor society and other organizations?
During my 28 years of STTI membership, my family has moved several times, and I have been a member of 8 different chapters. Within those, I have been elected to nearly every chapter-level office. Twice I served as a charter member of a petitioning honor society. At the international level, I was elected to the Research Committee twice, and then to the office of International Secretary twice. Additionally, I have served STTI in the following roles: Corporate Audit and Accountability Committee, 2003-2007; Board Development Committee – Chair, 2003-2007; Worldviews Editorial Board, 2004-present; Evidence-Based Practice Task Force - Chair, 2000-2003; Strategic Planning Task Force, 1998-1999; Clinical Scholarship Task Force, 1998-1999; Leadership Extern, 1997-1999; Virginia Henderson Fellow, 1997-present; Distinguished Lecturer, 1991-2003; Collateral Research Grant and Abstract Reviewer, 1996-present; and a winner of awards for Research Utilization, Research Dissemination, and Nursing Media.
For the current biennium, I served on the Board of Directors for the STTI Foundation, co-chaired the Major Gifts Committee, chaired the Virtual Chapter Development Committee, reviewed research grants, and reviewed manuscripts for Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing and the Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
I have also been elected to national offices, committees, and board positions within other organizations, including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the American Nurses Association, and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. In my employment settings, I have been elected to positions such as chair of a Nursing Shared Governance Leadership Council and chair of a college’s Research Advisory Board. Beyond nursing, I have served on boards with Habitat for Humanity, the League of Women Voters, and the United Way.
Through my employment, I have held a variety formal leadership and administrative roles in both clinical and educational institutions with management authority ranging from independent practice to a hospital administration position with responsibility for over 400 employees. In each of these situations, as an employee and as a volunteer, I have been blessed with the opportunity to serve as a “leader among leaders” where committed professionals worked together with a common purpose to provide service and make the world a better place.
Should you be elected to serve, what would you like to accomplish?
The strategic directions set forth in our Vision 2020 will continue to have relevance through the next two biennia. I am committed and prepared to lead our members through the four major goals of this agenda. The first challenge is relevance. We must respond to our diverse membership and expand our range of benefits and services to maintain relevancy. For my 28 years with Sigma Theta Tau, chapter leaders have struggled with the question: What can we offer to keep our new members active and engaged? My current job bridges the gap between academia and practice, and responds to a variety of consumer groups. I am accustomed to addressing the needs of diverse stakeholders in my work life and my volunteer roles.
Second, we will become intentionally global. We have proclaimed an international identity for years. Now is the time to commit significant resources to realize this dream. We live and work in a global society. Nurse leaders around the world have a wealth of knowledge to share. We will provide the venues and support systems to facilitate international nursing collaboration. My experience with international consultation, teaching, and team-building prepares me for this role. Third, we will grow in stature as the leading source for nursing knowledge and leadership development. Our membership comprises the best and the brightest nurses. We must support those members to continue to develop and disseminate new nursing knowledge. We must continue to invest in new mechanisms for leadership development that will build upon our members’ strengths and prepare them for leadership roles in practice, education, research, and policy. My prior experiences as a nursing administrator, association officer, researcher, leader of evidence-based practice initiatives, and teacher of nurse leaders, has prepared me to facilitate this agenda.
Finally, our society will remain knowledge-focused and technology-enabled. I will draw upon my prior experiences with our electronic library, online journals, and our recent work in developing virtual chapters, to facilitate the development of a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure that supports not only social networking, but also professional collaboration, and the development and synthesis of new nursing knowledge. One of my greatest strengths lies in developing networks and linkages. I will use this skill to develop new models of collaboration between our clinically-based and academically-based members, to create new models of mentorship between our senior and novice members, and to build our teams of nurse leaders around the world.
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