Healing does not stop at the bedside. It extends into the systems, policies, and decisions that shape access to care, workforce well-being, and community health outcomes.
This panel session equips nurses to expand their impact by strengthening their ability to engage in policy, advocate with confidence, and clearly articulate the value and complexity of nursing practice. Participants will explore practical strategies for engaging with legislators, understanding advocacy pathways, and distinguishing between advocacy and lobbying. The discussion will also examine how policy decisions influence health equity, workforce diversity, and culturally humble care across Pennsylvania.
Through dialogue with leaders in nursing, public health, and healthcare systems, this webinar supports professional empowerment and collective impact. By elevating diverse nursing voices in policy spaces, we can build more inclusive systems that advance workforce well-being and improve health outcomes for the communities we serve.
Participants will:
Lisa Summers, DrPH, MSN, FACNM, Co-Founder and President, Healing Politics
Lisa sees Healing Politics as the culmination of a career that was grounded in clinical care and education before expanding to policy and advocacy. Lisa practiced clinically for 20 years as a nurse and midwife and held faculty positions in schools of nursing and medicine before shifting to health policy work. She spent 11 years at the American College of Nurse-Midwives, where she was Director of Professional Services, and held policy positions at the American Nurses Association and Centering Healthcare Institute. She has spoken and written widely on healthcare policy and advocacy and, for 10 years prior to co-founding Healing Politics, taught health policy at Yale School of Nursing.
Lisa Davis, MHA, Director and Outreach Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration, Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health
As the Director of the State Office of Rural Health, Lisa ensures that the office exceeds its federal mission of being a source of networking, coordination, and technical assistance to advance rural health care delivery. On national, state, and university levels, Lisa serves on a wide range of boards of directors, advisory committees, and task forces focused on rural health policy, rural health research, economic development, outreach and education, health disparities, and vulnerable populations. Her current areas of focus are rural health transformation, maternal health, and national and state rural health advocacy.
Lisa and her husband live in Boalsburg, PA. They have one daughter who is a senior in college majoring in restorative justice with the goal of ending human trafficking and sexual assault.
Tamika Jackson-Butts, DNP, MHA-GERONT, RN-AMB-BC, President, Pennsylvania State Nurses Association (PSNA)
Dr. Jackson-Butts has been a nurse for over 25 years, obtaining her DNP in leadership from Wilmington University. She completed the Helen Fuld School of Nursing Evidence Based Practice Immersion, leading to a certification in evidence based practice. Dr. Jackson- Butts has presented at the ANCC Magnet & Pathways Conference, The Omicron Delta Symposium, & University of Pennsylvania DNP session. She published the Workplace Violence statement for the Pennsylvania State Nurses Association and works in support of all Pennsylvania nurses to ensure safe staffing ratios, reduction of workplace violence towards nurses and equity in nursing.
Jessica Lazzeri DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN, Co-Chair, Legislative Committee, Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders (PONL)
Jessica Lazzeri DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN is the Clinical Director for the Women’s Health and Neonatal Service line at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, with leadership oversight of the inpatient OB/GYN units, the Intensive Care Nursery, and the Childbirth Education and Lactation Departments. With over 20 years of nursing and health care leadership experience, Dr. Lazzeri is passionate about building and promoting the nursing workforce to care for women and infants in the Philadelphia community.
Dr. Lazzeri currently serves as the co-chair of the Pennsylvania Organization of Nurse Leaders Legislative committee and in the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania Nurse Ambassador Program.
Maura Boughter-Dornfeld, MPH, President, Pennsylvania Public Health Association (PPHA) and Senior Project Manager and Dissemination & Impact Lead, Parity Center, The University of Pennsylvania
Maura Boughter-Dornfeld, MPH, is a Senior Project Manager and Dissemination & Impact Lead for the Parity Center at The University of Pennsylvania, focused on payment reform, primary care transformation, and advancing parity in healthcare financing. Her work spans data analysis, health policy development, dissemination, and innovation, with a particular emphasis on how decades of federal and state payment experimentation have shaped care delivery. Through her work and research, she examines how financing structures can better support equitable, high-quality primary care, with a keen interest in further engaging in Medicaid policy and state-level reform.
National Nurse-Led Care Consortium is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. This meeting session is pending accreditation for 1.5 contact hour of nursing continuing professional development. To obtain nursing continuing professional development contact hours, you must participate in the entire activity, participate in audience polling and/or Q&A sessions, and complete the evaluation.
