Attendees of the fifth annual Emergency Nurses Week Celebration

The Mount Sinai Department of Emergency Medicine recently hosted the fifth annual Emergency Nurses Week Celebration. The ceremony recognized awardees across six categories and graduates of the ED RN Fellowship from all Mount Sinai Health System emergency departments. Awardees, graduates, and their families gathered to celebrate.

At Mount Sinai, there are more than 700 emergency department nursing team members who deliver compassionate care to patients across the New York City region. Mount Sinai Emergency Nursing shows excellence through education, research, community engagement, clinical operations, and regional and national advocacy. Notably, in 2025, Mount Sinai reached a remarkable milestone when every emergency department across the Health System held an Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) Lantern Award simultaneously. The ENA Lantern Awards recognize the dedication, skill, and compassion of our emergency nurses. Learn more about Lantern Awards.

Emergency Nursing Ally of Distinction Award: This inaugural award recognized the leadership of Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System, and Mount Sinai Professor in Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, for his commitment to supporting emergency nursing. From left: Dr. Abella, Jonathan Nover, MBA, RN, and Christopher Nagata, MBA, MPH.

Emergency Nursing New Team Member of the Year: The recipients for this category have 24 months or less experience working in the Emergency Department and consistently display confidence and initiative in clinical care and contribute to the team’s success. From left are awardees Frank Naudus, Shirley Vitiello, Abigayle Stephenson, Rossi Arroyo, and presenter Louis Calderon. Not pictured are awardees Christopher Yu and Abner Diaz.

ED RN Fellowship Cohort 11 Graduates: From left are graduates Nayely Rodriguez, Christopher Zavatzky, and presenter Ledjan Halollari. Not pictured are graduates Miranda Oestreich and Sofiya Reznikova.

Emergency Nursing Mentor of the Year: The recipient for this category serves as a resource and mentor for Emergency Department team members and new hires by sharing knowledge and skills. From left are awardees Sarin Grey, Jon-Paul Dimarco, Peter Lo, and presenter Daya Manmadhan. Not pictured are awardees Mala Ameerullah, Corine Lamy, and Alexa Diaz.

ED RN Fellowship Cohort 12 Graduates: From left are presenter Timothy Ivers, graduates Elizabeth Keeler, Alexandra Chetram, Isabella Edgarian, and presenter Leeann Miguel. Not pictured are graduates Azatoui Saakian, Nicole Chen, Lilian Guzman, and Emerson Kouri.

Emergency Nursing Patient Experience Award: The recipient for this category demonstrates excellence in patient experience through teamwork and compassion. From left are presenter Colleen Clifford, awardees Christopher Zavatzky, Charlene Napolean-Gaspard, Emma Sonta, Jayme Schrank, Anna Giuliano, and presenter Victoria Rodriguez. Not pictured is awardee Jessica Renvil Posada.

Emergency Nursing Innovation Award: An individual or team who has led and advocated for innovative technology initiatives in the Emergency Department leveraging continuous improvement and creative solutions. From left are awardees Yahaira Rivera-Rosario, Matthew Destefano, Lilian Batista, Jarrett Murphy, Philip Mangey, and presenter Kaleena Soorma. Not pictured is awardee Nephala Deabreu, RN.

ED RN Fellowship Cohort 13 Graduates: From left are graduates Elizabeth Scala, Anthony Pavella, Justin Medina, and presenter Kiteema McDonald. Not pictured is graduate Jacob Lucas.

Emergency Nursing Clinical Nurse of the Year: The recipient for this category is an emergency nurse who adheres to nursing standards of practice and consistently demonstrates exceptional patient care and professionalism. From left are awardees Yasmina Garcia, Courtney Perico, Catherine Torres, Jose Gotiangco, and presenter Ashley Caceres. Not pictured are awardees Michael Nelson and Yi-Hsiang Hsiao.

Emergency Nursing Nurse Leader of the Year: The recipient for this category is an emergency nurse leader of any level (Clinical RN, Charge RN, SCN, ANM, NM, Director) who demonstrates excellent leadership skills, adaptability, and fostering teamwork. From left are awardees Kaleena Soorma, Francine Stevens, Louis Calderon, Naomi Pyles, Michal Shamli, Samantha McCandless, and presenter Anthony Duncan.

More Photos From the Fifth Annual Emergency Nurses Week Celebration

Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN, Chief Nurse Executive, Senior Vice President, Cardiac Services, Mount Sinai Health System, delivers closing remarks at the ceremony.

Reception during the fifth annual Emergency Nurses Week Celebration

The ceremony recognized awardees across six categories and graduates of the ED RN Fellowship from all Mount Sinai Health System emergency departments.

2025 TRAIN Program leadership, speakers, staff, and fellows, from left: Bevin Cohen, PhD, MS, MPH, RN, FAAN; Kavita Rampertaap, MSN, RN, CPON; Tiffany Goldwire, MA, CHES; Selamawit Gebrezghi, MSN, FNP-c; Keisha Burrell, MSN, FP-BC; Joseph E. Ravenell, MD; Nickisha Mortimer, DNP, PMHNP; Tanmaiyee Vaddepati, MSN, MPH; Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FAHA, FAAN; and Crystal Tucker, DNP, PMH-RN-BC.

Hypertension remains a significant public health challenge and a major contributor to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Although clinical trials have identified effective interventions to improve hypertension outcomes, translation of findings remains uneven.

In 2023, the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation (CNRI) at Mount Sinai launched a novel program to address this disconnect. The third cohort of Translational Research And Implementation Science for Nurses (TRAIN) Program fellows will join Mount Sinai in May.

“The TRAIN Program is the first of its kind in the United States,” says Kimberly Souffront, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FAHA, FAAN, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Equity Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Associate Director of the CNRI. “TRAIN offers a fellowship opportunity to Doctor of Nursing Practice students from historically underresourced and disadvantaged backgrounds to develop expertise in translating evidence into clinical practice.”

The 12-week, summer boot camp-style initiative is supported by a five-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) at the National Institutes of Health.

“The TRAIN program is built around two core components,” says Bevin Cohen, PhD, MS, MPH, RN, FAAN, Director of the CNRI. “TRAIN fellows are paired with researchers in the field to gain hands-on experience and personalized mentorship in the fields of health disparities, hypertension, and other topics central to the NHLBI mission. The approach helps to develop skills for working in translational research teams. Simultaneously, TRAIN fellows participate in a rich, structured curriculum designed around the principles and methods of translational research, implementation science, and interdisciplinary teamwork.”

TRAIN fellows travel to Mount Sinai from across the country to take part in the program, which features nationally renowned guest speakers who are clinician-scientists in the fields of nursing, medicine, social work, and psychology, along with DNP-prepared leaders who bring expertise in health care operations and quality. Meet the five fellows from the second cohort in 2025.

Keisha Burrell, MSN, FNP-BC

Keisha Burrell, MSN, FNP-BC, is an Air Force reservist and a family nurse practitioner at SUNY University of Buffalo, where her goal is to advance mental care for all communities. “The TRAIN program gave me a much better appreciation for how research and clinical practice go hand in hand,” she says. “In nursing school, I shied away from research. As my nursing practice matured, I wanted to strengthen that area to be better able to bring the latest nursing knowledge to the frontline.”

Throughout Ms. Burrell’s fellowship, she worked with Milla Arabadjian, PhD, FNP-BC, RN, Assistant Professor, Department of Foundations of Medicine at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, to​ conduct a series of one-on-one interviews with Black men at risk for hypertension and their partners to identify interpersonal factors that impacted cardiovascular health promotion. She deepened her research involvement by observing an institutional review board, sharing insights via a podcast, and presenting a poster abstract at the Eastern Nursing Research Society’s 38th Annual Scientific Sessions.

Crystal Tucker, DNP, PMH-RN-BC

Crystal Tucker, DNP, PMH-RN-BC, is a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner at Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center in Charlote, North Carolina. Paired with mentor Billy A. Caceres, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, FPCNA, Associate Professor at the Columbia School of Nursing,  Ms. Tucker focused on a systematic literature review examining non-pharmacological interventions for hypertension in people living with serious mental illness—a project that she continues to work on with Dr. Caceres post-fellowship. “TRAIN was truly life changing to me personally and professionally,” Ms. Tucker says. “I hadn’t met any PhD-prepared nurse scientists, let alone any of color, so that was very inspirational. It also helped me see I can improve the health of more than one person at a time. For example, it can be hard for patients living with schizophrenia to get the help they need because of their symptoms, and some are reluctant to take medications. As a DNP working with a nurse scientist, we are finding ways to build a bridge where there’s a gap like this to find alternative approaches to improve the health of this community.”

Tanmaiyee Vaddepati, MSN, MPH

Tanmaiyee Vaddepati, MSN, MPH, practices in a medical-surgical unit at UMass Memorial Health, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her fellowship project involved equitable, primary care-integrated long COVID care for adults in New York City.

“Some research findings might not translate in an acute setting the same way they do in a community health setting,” Ms. Vaddepati says. “TRAIN helped us to focus on our role as DNPs to both identify available research and make it applicable within our own practice settings.”

“It was also really interesting to hear the different perspectives of fellows from across the country,” Ms. Vaddepati says. “Each of us had something unique to share that made for a rich collective learning experience. The other fellows have shared so much knowledge that I wouldn’t necessarily gain at the bedside or in a classroom.”

Nickisha Mortimer, DNP, PMHNP

Nickisha Mortimer, DNP, PMHNP, is a hospice clinical liaison for VNS Health. Her mentor was Ruth Masterson Creber, PhD, MSc, RN, FAAN, FAHA, the Mary Crawford Professor of Nursing and Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Health Informatics and Data Science at Columbia University’s School of Nursing. Ms. Mortimer had the opportunity to participate in Dr. Creber’s NHLBI-sponsored study “IMPROVE: Cardiac Care.”

“I didn’t come into the program seeing myself as a researcher at all,” Ms. Mortimer says. “So, this was an amazing opportunity, particularly as a student, to actively learn from the best of the best.”

She became involved in conducting reflexive interviews and analyzing how patient-reported outcomes inform clinical decision making. “I came to more deeply understand the importance of language, emotion, and environment in shaping how patients interpret health information,” she says. “The experience also revealed the symbiotic relationship between those doing the research and the DNP. I absolutely came away with more tools and knowledge that make me a far better provider.”

Selamawit Gebrezghi, MSN, FNP-c,

Selamawit Gebrezghi, MSN, FNP-c, is an Emergency Nurse Practitioner with Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California. As a TRAIN fellow, she contributed to a study of follow-up services for sexual assault survivors led by Jessica Draughon Moret, PhD, RN, Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing, Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. She described her experience as one of the most transformative of her nursing career.

“I entered the fellowship wanting to understand how evidence becomes action,” Ms. Gebrezghi says. “While I engaged with research, I was never taught how to critically evaluate evidence, synthesize findings, or understand how implementation strategies can facilitate or hinder equitable outcomes. TRAIN provided me with that understanding and a completely new scientific framework that I would not have accessed without this opportunity. Translational research and implementation science are fields that have traditionally felt out of reach for clinicians from disadvantaged backgrounds like mine that have limited access to academic resources and professional networks.”

Ms. Gebrezghi echoed the sentiments of the other fellows, saying, “TRAIN didn’t just advance my career. It expanded my capacity to lead change locally and globally. It showed me that nurses are not only vital to health care, they are capable of transforming it.”