Irene Joos holds a baccalaureate degree in nursing from Pennsylvania State University and a master's in nursing and a master's in information science as well as a PhD in education all form the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to her current position as Associate Professor, IST La Roche College, she served from 2003-2012 as the Director of Online Learning as well as full time faculty and prior to that as the Director of Library and Instructional Technology at La Roche. Before coming to La Roche College, she was a faculty member and served as the interim Director of Learning Resources at the School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh. Her teaching experience includes nursing informatics courses, and information systems and technology courses as well as a CORE course Virtual Communities and Social Media. She has presented at national and international conferences and has several publications related to her areas of expertise. Ramona Nelson holds a baccalaureate degree in nursing from Duquesne University and holds both a master's degree in nursing and in information science, as well as a PhD in education from the University of Pittsburgh. In addition she completed a post-doc fellowship at the University of Utah. Prior to her current position as president of her own consulting company, Ramona was a Professor of Nursing and Chair of the Department of Nursing at Slippery Rock University. Her teaching at the University included courses related to healthcare informatics, community health, and research. All of these courses were offered via web-based distance education. Her publications include textbooks, monographs, book chapters, journal articles, WWW publications, abstracts and newsletters. She was named a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2004 and was inducted into the NLN Academy of Nursing Education Fellows in 2007. In 2008 she received the Eleventh Annual Recognition Award for Advancement of Computer Technology in Healthcare from Rutgers University College of Nursing. She is currently a member of the NLN Strategic Planning Committee and ANA Committee on Nursing Practice Information Infrastructure. Marjorie Smith is an Emeritus Professor at Winona State University where she was the first director of the Master's Program in Nursing. She received her baccalaureate degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her master's degree in childbearing family nursing and doctorate in adult education are from of the University of Minnesota. She is a certified nurse-midwife and was a member of Sigma Theta Tau and the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Dr. Smith taught medical-surgical nursing, pediatric nursing, and obstetrical nursing at the undergraduate level in diploma, associate degree, and baccalaureate programs. She also taught advanced courses in nursing theory, research, women's health care, instruction and evaluation, nursing informatics, and health care technology and computers. She has served as chief editor of the textbook Child and Family: Concepts of Nursing Practice, published by McGraw-Hill. She has also written a computer assisted learning program, The Client Using the Birth Control Pill, published by Medi-Sim. She was an active participant and evaluator for many years in Centering Pregnancy, a model of group prenatal care that is part of the Centering Health Care Institute. Dr. Smith received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Mayo School of Health Related Sciences in 1998. In 2000 she received the Outstanding Nurse Educator award from the Minnesota Association of Colleges of Nursing. In 2009 Dr. Smith was selected as one of the 100 distinguished alumni of the University of Minnesota's School of Nursing in celebration of its Centennial. Outstanding individuals were selected from some 8,500 alumni who were deemed to have made great achievements to advance health care of were doing significant work in the nursing profession that has had a profound impact on families, communities, the school, or the nursing profession.
