Faculty

Amanda Burke-Aaronson teaches in the Bachelor’s and Master’s in nursing programs. Her focus is women’s health, obstetric and neonatal nursing. Her professional experience is as a mother-baby nurse (postpartum and well-baby) as well as a newborn intensive care nurse. She is a volunteer birth doula – a non-medical labor and birth support person – as well. She has a side focus on advocating for, and striving to bring appropriate gender-affirming healthcare for transgender people, especially in our...

Carlee Balzaretti, PHN, MPH, DNP, FNP-BC, CNL is an associate professor teaching the Applied Assessment & Nursing Fundamentals course to undergraduate students. Prior to this appointment, she taught across the undergraduate nursing curriculum in the Veteran Affairs Nursing Academic Partnership program at the Sacramento campus.

Dr. Balzaretti is currently the recorder for the Faculty Association of the School of Nursing and Health Professions and faculty advisor to the Black Nursing Student...

Angela D. Banks, RN, PhD is a Full Professor and former Chair of the Undergraduate Nursing Department in the School of Nursing and Health Professions. She teaches Pharmacology, Pathophysiology and Pharmacokinetics to undergraduate nursing students. She has been a registered nurse for more than 30 years, and prior to entering academia she worked in the cardiovascular intensive care unit and the emergency department. Her program of research focuses on women's health, health disparities, and...

Dr. Cox is a dually board-certified adult nurse practitioner and adult psychiatric nurse practitioner, and certified public health nurse. Her specialty interests and NP work are in psychiatric mental health, addiction medicine, behavioral and community health of vulnerable populations, advocacy, and psychiatric consultation. She brings her clinical experience, interests, and enthusiasm for community and mental health to her teaching, service, clinical work, and volunteerism. Her focus is on...

Mary Lou De Natale has expertise in community mental health and telehealth case management with the underserved in the community and their partners / families. For the past twenty nine years, she has been involved in the bachelors, masters, and DNP programs (committee member of doctoral dissertations in the School of Education and School of Nursing and Health Professions - DNP projects). Her professional and personal mission, clinical practice, and research revolve around health care advocacy...

Dr. John Hurley loves to teach and has been teaching in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program at USF for over eight years. He has thirty-seven years of experience as a clinical nurse, fifteen as nursing staff development and eight years of pediatric simulation teaching experience. He created and implemented a program for developing, nurturing, and sustaining the interior life of the nurse.

Dr. Ann Lawani received her PhD in nursing from the University of San Diego. Her unique professional background includes small business accounting, clinical nursing practice and leadership. She is a practicing registered nurse; her clinical experience entails adult cardio-pulmonary, stroke, Cystic Fibrosis and orthopedic patient populations across multiple health care settings, including acute care and hospice facilities. A scholar and life-long learner, Dr. Lawani’s area of research includes...

Professor Mark’s history with USF spans 37 years. After graduating from the BSN program in 1987, she enjoyed a 30-year nursing career as a medical surgical staff nurse in a local hospital. She then earned an MSN from UCSF as a geriatric clinical nurse specialist, and when an opportunity opened up to teach at her undergraduate alma mater as a clinical instructor, she jumped at the chance. This sparked a love and passion for teaching nursing, and she has continued to teach at USF for almost 25...

Dr. Norwood has a strong focus on health promotion, disease prevention and wellness and is fully committed to provide quality patient care and safety, coordination, communication, and advocacy for patients and their families. He brings more than 27 years of nursing experience with a background in family practice, trauma nursing, surgical nursing and military nursing. Dr. Norwood currently serves as an Associate Professor at USF, primary care provider for over 200 patients at Grass Valley...

Lisa is a proud triple USF Don earning her BSN, MSN and DNP from USF SONHP. She has over 38 years of healthcare experience in clinical, education, and leadership. She is active in the USF Alumni Association and is an active member of many nursing organizations. She was instrumental in establishing simulation at SONHP and has spoken locally, regionally, and nationally on simulation.

Professor Carter has been a nurse for over 20 years. She enjoys taking care of America's Veterans in her primary work but her passion is teaching. It brings her a renewed satisfaction in being able to share her wide range of expertise to the new generation of nurses. While providing a structured teaching environment, she strives to provide an nurturing learning environment. Her students learning is her top priority.

Professor Candace Cassidy has been a registered nurse for over 20 years. Prior to nursing, Professor Cassidy worked in research and analytical chemistry. While having her first child, she was mesmerized by the competent and caring staff when she was hospitalized. She went to nursing school and became committed to promoting excellence in nursing care. This passion has left an impact on the many students and nursing hires she has trained.

Beth Anne Chapin is a perinatal staff nurse at UCSF Birth Center. She is perinatally trained and serves as a scrub nurse in obstetrical surgery. She is a UCSF Magnet Nursing Champion, a member of the UCSF Clinical Inquiry Council, and finished an Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Fellowship in 2020.

Kathryn Grimely-Baker's "why nursing” story demonstrates that one can be resilient and make something good out of a bad situation. At 12 years old she was in a head-on collision with her younger sisters and best friend that landed them many weeks and surgeries in the hospital. She found the nursing staff to be the one bright joy of her day. She was most appreciative of the nursing staff passing to her twin sister and best friend in the ICU the “Get Well” notes she made from her paper placemats...

Neha Kumar is a Health Decision Scientist by training, whose research interests include psychological anthropology, or the interaction of cultural and mental processes. She studies how cultural groups–with their history, language, and practices–shape processes of human emotion and mental health. She has also worked to develop the allcove program, an innovative network of integrated youth mental health centers designed with, by, and for youth that reduce stigma, embrace mental wellness, increase...

Anna Kwong, Ed.D., RN, is an associate professor at University of San Francisco (USF) in the School of Nursing and Health Professions, where she teaches Applied Pathophysiology and Pharmacology and Fundamental clinical to undergraduate students. She has been a registered nurse for more than 20 years. During the first 10 years as a nurse, she has worked in adult medical-surgical units, viral hepatitis clinical research, and hospice care nursing.

Dr. Kwong has been teaching at USF since 2004...

Professor Merchant started a second career in nursing after graduating from USF in 2004, after first working on a medical/surgical ward in a community hospital and becoming interested in neuroscience nursing. She obtained a CNRN (Certified Neuroscience Registered Nursing) certification in 2010 and went on to work primarily with Parkinson disease and other movement disorder patients. She has also done volunteer work with the Northern California Epilepsy Foundation.

Julia believes that helping patients isn't just about what happens at the bedside. Although nothing can replace the feeling Julia gets from helping patients hands-on, there's only so many patients one nurse can manage at a time. Julia became an instructor because translating her experience into knowledge for nurses in training allows her to scale her positive impact on patient outcomes. She knows that each future nurse she helps to blossom into a consummate, caring professional indirectly...

Professor Patterson has 45 years of nursing experience, including in multiple leadership roles in outpatient and inpatient settings, and notably served as president of the American Association for Men in Nursing from 2014-2016. He received a nursing diploma from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in San Francisco, a BSN from CSU Dominguez Hill, an MSN from San Francisco State University, and a doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) from the University of San Francisco. He has a passion for local...

Professor Schacke has been working as a registered nurse under the women's and children's umbrella throughout her career. She is passionate about the field of pediatrics and maternal-child nursing. Additionally, she has spent a substantial amount of time in clinical research.

Jeremy Yves Vergara has 23 years of nursing experience in adult critical care, pediatric and adult neurology, peri-operative practice, and hospital and ambulatory leadership. Jeremy is a doctoral prepared nurse with specialization in healthcare systems leadership. He is fueled by a vision to improve clinical practice and processes and accomplished in determining the most optimal operational practices — achieving objectives to improve organizational and patient outcomes through structural...

Sarah McCall Proctor believes education is a cornerstone to developing a healthy human, family, community, and society. Through out her career in nursing has sought to learn more about how to provide empowering options for people to move towards improved health. As an educator she holds the same philosophy. To accompany the learner on a path of empowerment during their education and journey in nursing.

Dr. Elizabeth Cooper is an experienced clinical systems management expert. Her work focused on quality and safety education for nursing. Dr. Cooper has also contributed to the nursing education by submitting for publication a number of her research projects and investigations.

Dr. Cooper received her master’s in nursing and doctor in nurse practitioner degrees at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Copper’s research interests are in the areas of nursing education, assessment surveys, patient...

Dr. Gregory DeBourg taught at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions from 1993 - 2019. Dr. DeBourg started as an adjunct faculty and, in 1998, became a full-time professor in the School of Nursing and Health Professions. Dr. DeBourgh taught NURS 370 - Medical-Surgical Nursing I: Management of Comprehensive Adult Patient Care, a course emphasizing synthesis and application of knowledge. In 2014 Dr. BeBourgh shared during an interview why he flipped his entire...

Susan Prion, EdD, RN, CNE, CHSE is the associate dean of and a professor in the nursing department. She holds baccalaureate degrees in biology and chemistry from Muskingum College and a BS in nursing from Case Western Reserve University. She has a master’s degree in nursing from the University of California San Francisco and an MEd in instructional technology from San Jose State University. Professor Prion also holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction.

She is actively engaged in...