Natalie Kirkwood joined the American Academy of CME (Academy) in 2001 with more than 25 years of experience in professional health care education. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Sciences in Nursing from the University of the State of New York. At graduation, Ms. Kirkwood received the prestigious Mildred Montag Award for academic excellence and outstanding achievement in nursing.

Ms. Kirkwood’s expertise is in curriculum development and delivery of professional health care education programs. Her experience includes nursing professional development and undergraduate didactic and clinical education. In her career she has been involved in all aspects of educational design including planning, development, implementation and evaluation of outcomes. Early in her career, Ms. Kirkwood successfully presented her paramedic curriculum to Camden County College and received an Adjunct Faculty appointment to implement one of New Jersey’s first paramedic programs. On the strength and success of this program, she was offered and accepted the position of Education Coordinator, New Jersey Department of Health, Office of Emergency Medical Services. In this position, she was responsible for the quality of emergency medical services education statewide. Her academic appointments have included affiliate faculty for Linfield College School of Nursing, Oregon Health Sciences University School of Nursing and the American Heart Association. She has lectured at professional nursing association conferences and served on a national speaker’s panel.

Prior to joining the Academy, Ms. Kirkwood was Director of Nursing Specialty Services at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). She was accountable for delivering high quality patient care within her departments and directly responsible for ensuring her staff and physicians were prepared for contemporary practice. Staff development and skills competency education was developed by Ms. Kirkwood to ensure that professional standards of practice were met. During her employment, she planned, developed, implemented and evaluated nursing skills competency programs in emergency department nursing, cardiac cath lab nursing, interventional radiology nursing, conscious sedation administration, and intravenous therapy. Continuous quality improvement initiatives were also implemented by her in her various departments.

At the Academy, Ms. Kirkwood is responsible for ensuring that all continuing nursing education (CNE)-certified activities are planned and implemented in accordance with the standards of the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Education. She ensures that activity planning committees are composed of qualified individuals able to plan and deliver high quality education for nurses. Ms. Kirkwood is actively involved in and responsible for planning, developing, implementing and evaluating all CNE-certified activities offered by the Academy. She is a member of the Academy’s Board of Directors, where she seeks to assure both CNE-certified activities and the Academy continuously seek opportunities for improvement. Her focus is on providing high quality continuing healthcare professional education which closes professional practice gaps and ultimately improves patient care.