About the Author

Dr. McGonigle brings more than 40 years of experience in nursing and nursing informatics to this position. She is a Certified Distance Education Instructor and a Certified Nurse Educator. After being introduced to computers enhancing nursing education while working towards her master’s degree, Dr. McGonigle defined informatics in 1991. She co-founded the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics (OJNI), a professional, scholarly, peer-reviewed journal in 1996 for which she was the Editor in Chief for 17 years through 2013. OJNI is currently published by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). In 2014, Dr. McGonigle was the first one honored as a Platinum Award recipient from the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics. She developed the Foundation of Knowledge Model and the ETHICAL Model used to handle ethical challenges brought about by the volatile information age. Dr. McGonigle has received over $870,000.00 in funding, presented internationally and nationally, authored workbooks, book chapters and more than 130 publications. She led the development of an online self-assessment tool for level 3 and level 4 nursing informatics competencies, NICA L3/L4, which was cited in ANIA’s Nursing Informatics Today in 2014 and ANA’s NI Scope and Standards document. Dr. McGonigle was a research team member for the development of an online self-assessment tool, TANIC, for basic level 1 and level 2 nursing informatics competencies based on the TIGER initiatives. Dr. McGonigle has co-authored three text books. The nursing informatics text, Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge is in its 3rd edition and took second place as AJN’s 2014 Information Technology/Social Media Book of the Year. The text written for nurse educators to help them assimilate technology to enhance teaching and learning, Integrating Technology into Nursing Education: Tools for the Knowledge Era, was AJN’s 2010 first place Technology Book of the Year. This text, Informatics for Health Professionals, released in 2016. She is a member of the Expert Panel on Informatics and Technology for the American Academy of Nursing, a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a Fellow in the NLN Academy of Nursing Education. She is also a member of the Serious Gaming and Virtual Environments Special Interest Group for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Dr. Kathleen Mastrian is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Program Coordinator for the Shenango Campus of Penn State. She has a PhD in Sociology with an emphasis on Medical Sociology, A Master’s degree in Nursing from Pitt and a BS in Nursing from Penn State. She has been involved in the education of non-traditional aged students for 36 years in the RN to BS nursing program. She is one of the founding proposers to place the RN to BS program online for the Penn State’s World Campus, has developed five of the courses for that curriculum, and teaches at least one section per semester for the World Campus RN to BS program. She has extensive experience teaching informatics, research and sociology for the Shenango campus and has taught online for the World Campus for over 10 years. She is SR. managing Editor of the Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, now a publication of HIMSS. Dr. Mastrian has presented at numerous national,conferences , co-authored two text books and written more than 30articles. An additional bookwritten for nurse educators to help them integrate technology to enhance teaching and learning, Integrating Technology into Nursing Education: Tools for the Knowledge Era, was AJN’s 2010 Technology Book of the Year, and this text won second place in the AJN's Technology Division in 2015. Drs. Mastrian and McGonigle were eachnamed to the "15 Leading Professors of Nursing Informatics" 2015 list compiled by Medical Technology Schools. Dr. Mastrian won the2012 Shirley Novosel Distinguished Nursing Alumni Award and was recently nominated for an Athena Leadership Award.