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Keynote Address

From Insight to Impact: Nurses as Architects of Innovation and Culture Change in Healthcare

Amy Setesak, RN, BSN, CMSRN

Amy Setesak is a dedicated nurse and innovator focused on advancing patient care through forward-thinking solutions. Since earning her BSN from the University of Connecticut in 2008, she has built a diverse clinical background spanning home care, medical-surgical, oncology, neurocritical care, and plastic surgery post-operative care. Her passion for innovation emerged through piloting new initiatives and workgroups, inspiring her to complete UCONN’s Healthcare Innovation Program. She is a founding member of the first Nursing Innovation Center and Accelerator at MSK, breaking down silos to foster collaboration between nursing and biomedical engineering while empowering nurses to navigate the complexities of innovation within healthcare organizations.

As a co-inventor of a medical device, she champions end-user innovation to develop solutions centered on both patients and clinicians. Beyond the bedside, Amy is developing a plant-based protein water designed for both patients and health-conscious consumers, bridging the gap between clinical care and everyday wellness. Her mission is to empower nurses as change-makers, shaping the future of healthcare.

Faculty Innovation Seed Grant Awardee Presenters

Feasibility of mapping Changes in Tissue Depth in Adults While Sucking

Ruth Lucas PHD RNC CLS FAAN, Associate Professor, School of Nursing

Dr. Lucas is a nurse scientist, educator, innovator, and researcher focused on maternal-child health, breastfeeding, pain, and genetics. My primary goal is to shift the breastfeeding paradigm from a maternal-only psychological approach to an infant-maternal biopsychosocial science using biopsychosocial mechanisms within the dyadic interaction between infant and mother.

Martin Huber Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering

Dr. Huber joined the University of Connecticut in the Fall of 2022 as an Assistant Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his B.S. (2007), M.S. (2010) and Ph.D. (2022) from the University of Connecticut. His interests include computational design, mechatronics and mechanical systems, and human motion analysis.

Objective Continuous Assessment of Nurses’ Trust in Artificial Intelligence Healthcare Technologies

Hugo F. Posada-Quintero Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering

Dr. Posada-Qunitero’s research includes the development of signal processing techniques, wearable instrumentation, and sensors for biomedical applications. Specifically, the aim of his research is to develop models and biomedical instrumentation for the detection and prediction of stress, fatigue, pain, emotional state, hydration status, wakefulness, cognitive performance, heart failure, among others. We use modern mathematical tools to process bioelectrical signals obtained from different sites of the body and explore the relationship between those signals and the biomedical variable being detected or predicted.

Valorie MacKenna PhD RN CNE CHSE, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Simulation-Based Education, School of Nursing

In this role, Dr. MacKenna leads the operations and curricular efforts for on-campus experiential learning. With over 11 years’ experience working in simulation, Valorie lends her expertise to provide educationally sound learning experiences for UConn nursing students. Since arriving at UConn, Valorie has worked with the faculty to expand the use of high-fidelity simulations across four regional campuses.

Wendy Henderson, PhD CRNP, FAASLD, FAAN, joined Penn Nursing from the University of Connecticut School of Nursing

Dr. Wendy Henderson held a joint appointment as Professor in the School of Nursing and the School of Medicine. DR. Henderson was previously a clinical investigator and lab chief of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), Digestive Disorders Unit, Division of Intramural Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

Faculty Senior Design Awardee Presentations

Pulse Oximetry to Account for Variations in the Skin Spectrum

Kazunori Hoshino PhD, Associate Professor, College of Engineering

Professor Hoshino studies nano/micro-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS) for biomedical applications. The two focus areas are: (1) Nano and microscale mechanical sensing and optical imaging for tissue engineering and (2) Detection and analysis of cancer cells. He investigates smart microfluidic systems to capture and analyze cancer cells. He co-authored a textbook, Molecular Sensors and Nanodevices, from Elsevier (1st edition in 2013, 2nd edition in 2018), and has more than 110 peer-reviewed publications. He is the inventor of 6 US patents and 12 Japanese patents.

Mallory Perry-Eaddy PhD RN CCRN, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing

Dr. Perry-Eaddy is a pediatric critical care nurse and NIH-funded nurse scientist. Dr. Perry-Eaddy’s program of research aims to explore and characterize outcomes of critically ill children, including their response to treatments, biological response and overall function as they recover with hopes to optimize recovery. She is currently funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) as a MOSAIC K99/R00 Scholar for her study, PEdiatric Recovery after sepSIS Treatment in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PERSIST-PICU). She is an active member of the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, Pediatric Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Investigators, American Thoracic Society and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Using AI to Fight Pain and Opioid Dependence

Steve Kinsey, PhD, Professor & Director, Center for Advancements in Managing Pain, School of Nursing

Dr. Kinsey is a biomedical researcher with specialized training in pain and behavioral neuroscience. Dr. Kinsey's strong research interests in modulating stress, inflammation, and emotion motivated him to seek postdoctoral training in cannabinoid and opioid pharmacology. His research interests center on the effects of stress and endogenous cannabinoids and opioids on pain and emotion using experimental animal models. The ultimate goal of Dr. Kinsey’s work is to identify targets for the development of new pharmacological treatments for inflammatory and emotional disorders in humans.

Sheida Nabavi PhD, Associate Professor, College of Engineering

Dr. Nabavi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science having joined in the Fall of 2015. Before joining UConn, Dr. Nabavi was a Research Associate in the Center for Biomedical Informatics (CBMI) at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Nabavi received her PhD from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in December 2008 and her Master’s in Medical Science focused on Biomedical Informatics from HMS in May 2012. Her research interest is on developing novel computational methods for analyzing genomic data and biomedical images by employing advanced statistical machine learning and signal/image processing techniques.

InnovateHealth PitchFest Guest Judges