Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics

For 35 years, the Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics (SINI) has served as the premier gathering for informatics nurses, clinicians, educators, researchers, and innovators driving the digital transformation of health care. As we mark this milestone anniversary, SINI 2026 will honor the rich legacy of leadership and innovation that has defined the field while preparing the next generation of informatics nurses to lead in an era defined by accelerated development of artificial intelligence (AI), data ethics, and intelligent health systems.

This year’s conference will be held in person at the University of Maryland School of Nursing in Baltimore. SINI 2026 will feature an immersive experience that blends thought leadership, professional development, and collaborative networking. Attendees will engage in expert-led sessions and strategic discussions that reflect both the challenges and the opportunities of informatics in a rapidly evolving health care landscape.

Objectives: 

1. Integrate lessons from 35 years of nursing informatics to lead innovation in data-driven, AI-enhanced health care systems.
2. Explore principles of data stewardship, AI governance, and innovation leadership to advance safe, ethical, and data-driven nursing practice across health care systems.
3. Apply emerging technologies to enhance patient engagement, promote health equity, and extend care beyond traditional settings.
4. Analyze opportunities to extend nursing informatics practice beyond electronic health records (EHRs) through quality improvement, educational innovations, and organizational transformation.

Timeline

• 35th Anniversary Celebration: A tribute to SINI’s historic contributions to nursing informatics, showcasing milestones, alumni achievements, and the community’s collective impact on the profession.
• Expert Keynote Speakers: Visionaries and pioneers in nursing informatics will share insights on how technology and leadership can converge to advance health outcomes.
• Professional Development and Thought Leadership Sessions: Engaging sessions will bring together thought leaders, innovators, and educators to explore emerging trends in AI, data governance, patient engagement, and informatics education.
• Peer-Reviewed Presentations: Researchers, clinicians, and educators will showcase innovative projects, evidence-based practices, and informatics solutions shaping the future of health care.
• Poster Session: The conference will feature dedicated time for poster viewing and discussion, creating rich opportunities for scholarly exchange and professional networking.
• Awards and Recognition: We will celebrate excellence through awards for the Best Peer-Reviewed Presentation and Best Poster, recognizing outstanding contributions to the field of nursing informatics and inspiring continued innovation and leadership.
• Networking Opportunities: Attendees will enjoy vibrant opportunities to connect and collaborate with colleagues and experts throughout the conference, including a networking reception, mentoring meetups, social gatherings, and optional off-site events.
• Evening Experiences in Downtown Baltimore: Participants are invited to enjoy optional evening activities that offer opportunities to connect with colleagues, explore the city, and experience the rich culture and charm of downtown Baltimore.

Choose from one of three concurrent tracks during this two-day event:

Track A - Strategic Leadership: Navigating Data Stewardship and AI Governance in the Age of Intelligent Nursing Practice

 This track explores the evolving leadership role of nurse informaticists at the intersection of data stewardship, AI governance, and clinical innovation. As health care organizations increasingly embed intelligence into workflows — through predictive analytics, clinical decision support, wearables, and AI-augmented EHRs — nurse leaders are challenged to guide safe, ethical, and effective adoption. Discussions will address policy and governance frameworks, strategic partnerships with technology vendors, and culture shifts needed to move from tool-based implementation to intelligent, data-driven care delivery. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how to design, implement, and lead governance and adoption strategies that integrate technology responsibly and effectively into nursing practice, enhancing clinical outcomes, staff engagement, and patient safety.

Track B - Empowering Patients Through Innovative Technological Engagement 

This track will introduce and discuss how rapidly evolving technological innovations are reshaping patient empowerment and engagement across the continuum of care. With the growing integration of AI and consumer health technologies, smart speakers, wearables, and mobile health applications, care delivery is increasingly extending beyond hospital walls into patients’ daily lives. Presentations in this track will highlight strategies that leverage digital tools to promote behavioral change, enhance chronic disease management, and improve well-being. Emphasis will also be placed on advancing population health through technology by fostering collaborations between technology developers, clinicians, and underserved communities. The expected outcome of this track is to empower health care team members to deliver more personalized, accessible, and equitable care that promotes the well-being of patients across health care and community settings.

SINI-U - Beyond the Electronic Health Record: Expanding the Role of Nursing Informatics

The EHR continues to serve as a foundational tool in nursing practice and a foundational body of focused work for an informatics nurse specialist, but the evolving demands of health care call for a broader scope of informatics practice. This track equips nursing informatics specialists to move beyond documentation systems and take on active roles in quality improvement, patient safety, organizational transformation, and clinical education. This track also emphasizes the integration of nursing informatics competencies into everyday clinical and educational workflows. Clinical educators and post-graduate nurses will learn how to apply informatics tools to enhance bedside teaching and care delivery. Case studies will illustrate how informatics can be embedded into routine clinical education to improve outcomes and engagement.

Keynote Presentation

Beyond Informatics: Nurses as Architects of the AI Enabled Future of Care
Retired Capt. Kimberly Elenberg, DNP, RN, PMP 
Principal Project Scientist, Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute Auton Lab
Retired Capt. Kimberly Jill Elenberg, DNP, RN, PMP, is a principal project scientist in the Auton Lab at Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Robotics Institute, where she leads applied artificial intelligence (AI) research at the intersection of health care, robotics, and high-stakes decision-making. She is the team lead for CMU’s Team Chiron in the DARPA Triage Challenge, advancing multimodal sensing and AI-enabled, stand off casualty assessment to improve responder safety and speed during life saving care in mass casualty events. Her 28-year career as an Army and U.S. Public Health Service nurse included 19 deployments and senior incident response strategy roles supporting national missions. She has also been featured in national media demonstrating lifesaving robotic capabilities for search and rescue. A nurse informaticist by training, Elenberg holds a DNP in Public Health Informatics (Johns Hopkins University) and an MS in Nursing Informatics (University of Maryland School of Nursing), bringing a practical, human-centered lens to the future of technology and the nurse’s role in shaping what comes next.  

Endnote Presentation:

Honoring Our Past, Empowering the Future of Informatics
Michelle Lardner, DNP, RN, NI-BC
Chief Nursing Information Officer, UVA Health
Michelle Lardner, DNP, RN, NI-BC, is the inaugural chief nursing information officer at UVA Health. She is responsible for driving activities to improve clinician electronic medical record utilization and efficiency, including fostering collaboration with leaders across the UVA Health system to develop sound, clinically relevant technology solutions that promote standardization and high-quality patient care. Prior to this role, she served as the system executive director of enterprise clinical systems at City of Hope and the senior vice president of clinical informatics at Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Her past positions also include deputy chief information officer and chief of clinical informatics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, various informatics leadership roles in the Washington, D.C., metro area, and application coordinator at Epic Systems. She served in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps and has completed wartime and humanitarian deployments aboard the USNS Comfort and USNS Mercy. Lardner earned her BSN from the University of Illinois and her MS and DNP degrees from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. 

Distinguished Lecturer Presentation:

Legacy to Leadership: The Lived Experience
Retired Rear Adm. Carol Romano, PhD, RN, FAAN 
Rear Admiral (Ret) USPHS, Dean and Professor, Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Retired Rear Adm. Carol A. Romano, PhD, RN, FAAN is dean and professor of the Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services University (USU) of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. She directs the organization, operations, and strategic planning of the school and serves on the USU executive cabinet. She directed implementation of curriculum reform for a new Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program for advanced practice nursing, led multiple successful accreditation reviews, and achieved Center of Excellence recognition and national ranking in the top 5% for graduate nursing schools.

She has served in a variety of leadership positions in the U.S. Public Health Service in the Office of the Surgeon General, where she was responsible for oversight and operations that affected 6,800 commissioned officers, 4,000 reserve officers, and 3,000 nurses. Her roles involved strategic planning, policy development, and advising senior government officials.

Romano also worked for 34 years at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Center, where she served as associate investigator, clinical research nurse, educator, director of nursing communications and recruitment, nursing system specialist, director of clinical informatics and quality assessment, deputy chief information officer, and senior advisor for clinical research informatics.  

She is recognized as a pioneer in nursing informatics, and she helped design and implement one of the first computerized medical information systems in 1976, which provided electronic medical orders and clinical documentation for physicians and nurses in ambulatory and hospital environments. She was co-architect of the world’s first graduate curriculum in nursing informatics at the University of Maryland School of Nursing (UMSON). In addition, Romano served as advisor to the World Health Organization on the management of manpower and health information in developing countries.

She earned a diploma in nursing from the Geisinger Medical Center School of Nursing in Pennsylvania and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science, and PhD degrees from UMSON. She is board certified in nursing informatics and as an advanced nurse executive. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American College of Medical Informatics.

Executive Officers

Cheryl Fisher, EdD, MSN, RN
SINI 2026 Co-Chair
Associate Professor and Co-Director, MSN/Certificate Nursing Informatics Programs
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Charlotte Seckman, PhD, RN, NI-BC, CNE, FAAN
SINI 2026 Co-Chair
Associate Professor and Co-Director, MSN/Certificate Nursing Informatics Programs
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Digital Communications/Collaborators

Cory Stephens, DNP, RN, NI-BC, CPHIMS, FHIMSS, CNE
Past Co-Chair, SINI 2025
Assistant Professor University of Maryland School of Nursing

Leadership Committee Members

Lynn Marie Elizabeth Bullock, DNP, RN, NEA-BC
Assistant Professor and Director, Office of Professional Education
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Karen Clark, PhD, RN, NI-BC, Alumna CCRN
Assistant Professor 
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Arpad G. Kelemen, PhD
Professor
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Eun-Shim Nahm, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor and Associate Dean for the PhD Program
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Ernest Opoku-Agyemang, PhD, MA, RN
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Sonia Smith, MS
Program Manager
Office of Professional Education
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Barb Van de Castle, DNP, NI-BC, OCN-Emeritus
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Marion Ball, EdD, FLHIMSS, FCHIME, FAAN, FACMI
Executive Director, Multi-Interprofessional Center for Health Informatics
University of Texas at Arlington

Sayonara Barbosa, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor
University of Cincinnati College of Nursing

Diane Constantine, MBA, MSN, RN, NI-BC,
NEA-BC
Director, Department Clinical Informatics University of Maryland Medical Center

Claire Floyd, MSN, RN, NI-BC
ANIA Maryland Chapter Board Member

Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP
Vice President for Health Informatics
University of Vermont Health Network

Brooke L. Gaskins, DNP, MS, RN, NEA-BC, LSSGB
Director Clinical Informatics
University of Maryland Medical System

Kathleen McGrow, DNP, RN, PMP
Chief Nursing Information Officer
Microsoft Health & Life Science Industry Team

Mary Etta Mills, ScD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Professor Emerita
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Cindy Russell, DNP, RN, NI-C, EBP-C
Informatics Nurse Specialist
Frederick Memorial Hospital
Adjunct Faculty, University of Maryland School of Nursing

Teri Young, MSB, BSN, RN-BC
Managing Partner, Health IT Consultant
Teri Young Consulting LLC

Student Representatives
Vinielle Acha-Morfaw, BSN, RN
MSN Nursing Informatics Student
University of Maryland School of Nursing

Ezra Kasule, BSN, RN
MSN Nursing Informatics Student
University of Maryland School of Nursing