Election Results, Scholarships, and Annual CE Event Highlighted
By Anne-Marie Caron
The New England Chapter of GAPNA would like to introduce you to the winners of the 2020/2021 Board election.
President Elect: Amy Yentsch, MSN, APRN, AGNP-BC
Amy Yentsch is an AANP board-certified Adult Gerontological Nurse Practitioner. She is finishing a post-Master’s certificate program at UMass Amherst to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.
She has degrees from UMass Boston (MSN, BSN), Quincy College (ASN), and Kalamazoo College (BA). She works in long-term care settings doing psychiatric medication management and has her MAT waiver.
She has been a NE GAPNA member in good standing for 5 years, serving as a Director-at-Large this past year.
She is also a regional representative for the Massachusetts Coalition of Nurse Practitioners, a member of the Massachusetts Association of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses, Holistic Nurses Association, American Geriatrics Society, and Sigma Theta Tau International – Theta Alpha Chapter. She lives on the South Shore with her husband and chocolate lab.
Secretary: Mary Ellen Januario, APRN-BC
'Mary Ellen currently works in the LTC setting in care of older adults as a Clinical Services Manager for Optum. She has a lifelong commitment to ensuring the highest level of care to our frail elderly.
She appreciates the opportunity to continue serving on the board to promote geriatric advanced nursing practice in areas of education research and program development and to contribute to promoting GAPNA through outreach and strategic planning on a local level.
Director-at-Large (2-Year Term): Elizabeth Weinshel, MSN, APRN, GNP-BC, ACHPN
Elizabeth is a graduate of Yale University School of Nursing, MSN with a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner Concentration and Adult Psychiatric-Mental Health Subspecialty. Elizabeth has years of leadership experience as Director of Clinical Operations with Optum and as Complex Care Management Lead for Westmed Medical Group.
Most recently she has served as Director of Nursing Services at the Filosa Convalescent Center, responsible for mentoring and leading a clinical team of 85 employees to perform to the highest of their licensure and training in the delivery of care to long-term residents and short-term rehabilitative patients in a privately owned skilled nursing facility.
Director-at-Large (1-Year Term): Linda York, MSN, APRN, AGNP-BC
Linda York is an AANP-board certified Adult Gerontological Nurse Practitioner who has been a New England GAPNA member since 2016. She has a BSN from Simmons University and an MSN from University of Massachusetts Boston.
She currently works at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as a radiology NP and has previous experience in headache medicine.
Student Scholarship Winners
The chapter was excited to offer two student scholarships this year. The additional scholarship was offered due to the generosity of our 2019 Conference speakers.
Many speakers generously donated their honorarium back to the chapter, allowing us to create a second scholarship opportunity!
We are thrilled to announce that Rachel Hansen has been chosen as the 2020 APRN Student Scholarship winner in the amount of $1,500.
Rachel Hansen is a graduate student enrolled in the Rivier University Family Nurse Practitioner program with an anticipated graduation in Fall 2021. Rachel received her accelerated post-baccalaureate BSN from MCPHS University, Manchester, NH, in May 2015.
She is currently a float nurse on the staffing resource team at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
Rachel’s passion to become a geriatric nurse practitioner stems from her diverse experience as a float nurse. Her goal is to become a hospice or palliative care nurse practitioner so that she can work closely with this unique population and address their specific healthcare needs.
She is passionate about being a strong advocate for this vulnerable population, in which she aspires to focus on primary healthcare management, health promotion, and disease prevention.
She believes there is a strong need for geriatric nurse practitioners and is excited for her future career.
Rachel has held various leadership positions including the Nursing Students without Borders leadership committee and National Student Nurses’ Association at the MCPHS University as well as Nurse Residency Program Preceptor and Charge Nurse at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
NE GAPNA is also thrilled to announce that Elissa Bate was chosen as the 2020 APRN Student Scholarship winner in the amount of $750.
Elissa Bate is a graduate student enrolled in the University of Maine’s Family Nurse Practitioner program with an anticipated graduation date of May 2021. Elissa received her BSN and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Maine in 2014.
She is currently a home health nurse for Maine Health Care at Home and an outpatient pediatric day treatment nurse at Acadia Hospital.
Upon graduation, Elissa plans to serve her local older population by working as a primary care provider. She hopes to incorporate her home health case management experience and graduate education to empower older adults to keep as much autonomy as possible as they age.
She hopes to empower her patients to be team players in managing their chronic conditions. She plans to identify safety issues such as fall risks, food insecurity, medication management, and access to heating for her patients.
Elissa has received many awards including Dean's List 2010, 2012-2014, 2019; Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honors Society; Order of Omega Greek Honors Society 2012-2014; Golden Key Honors Society 2011-2014; and Alpha Lambda Delta Honors Society 2011-2014.
CE Event
Due to COVID-19, we had no other alternative but to postpone our 2020 Annual Conference. The next NE GAPNA conference will be held at the beautiful Nantasket Beach Resort in Hull, MA, on Saturday, April 17, 2021. We have fantastic speakers lined up and will open the conference for registration soon!
We will be offering a discounted conference registration rate to GAPNA members. More details to follow. Following the conference, we are excited to celebrate our chapter’s 15th anniversary!
Anne-Marie Caron, DNP, ANP-BC, APRN, GS-C
anne.m.caron@optum.com