Issue link: http://tcnj.uberflip.com/i/540835
32 SUMMER 2015 CLASS NOTES the year for her work as a first- grade language arts teacher at Joseph C. Shaner Elementary School in New Jersey. She has worked there for the past 24 years. 1990s George P. Drake Jr. '90 was appointed dean of the School of Education at Millersville University. He is scheduled to start his position July 15, 2015. David Richards '90 is associate professor of political science and human rights at the University of Connecticut. His current book, Violence Against Women and the Law (Paradigm, 2015), was co-authored with Jillienne Haglund and examines domestic laws addressing violence against women in 196 countries. Kathy (Gatti) Mottola '91 is an elementary technology teacher in the Fair Lawn (New Jersey) Public School district. Lydia Rios '91 joined the Trenton Thunder as its new director of marketing and sponsorships. Jill Cosse '92 was inducted into the New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Andrew Darlow '92 published the book Biscuit for Your Thoughts? It features pictures of canines and dog-inspired quotes. Stephen Strange '92 was appointed to the High Bridge, New Jersey, Borough Council last November. Kelly Williams '92 has been appointed senior associate director of athletics for external affairs at TCNJ. Kelly, most recently head coach of the Lions men's basketball team, won the John K. Adams Coach of the Year award from the New Jersey Athletic Conference in February. Danielle Wrobel Fish '93 was named director of admission and marketing for The Sage School in Foxboro, Massachusetts. James A. Mousalimas MA '93 was elected superintendent of schools in San Joaquin County, California. Alex Sauickie '93 was appointed executive vice president of business and technology opera- tions for Scivantage. Cara Church '94 earned her PhD in clinical psychology. Her dissertation, "Exploring Attachment and Defense Style Effects on the Self-Reflective Ability among Individuals with Addictive Disorders," was published and can be accessed through ProQuest or Dissertation Abstracts International. THREE DAYS BEFORE DONNA HART GAGE '81 was set to start her new job as the Veterans Health Administration's chief nursing officer, she learned from the evening news that the man who hired her—former Under Secretary for Health Robert A. Petzel, MD— had been fired and that her new employer faced a mounting scandal. It was June 2014, two months after officials in the Phoenix VA Health Care System had been accused of manipu- lating waiting lists to hide long patient delays. The allegations had extended to other VA hospitals, and the FBI announced a criminal investigation just three weeks before Gage reported for her first day of work. "After the scandal broke, everyone kept asking me, Are you really still going to go work there? 'Are you crazy?' says Gage. "I said, 'Yes, but I can't help them from the outside. I can only give them my best and try to work with them if I'm on the inside.'" So far, one of her top priorities has been the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Initiative. It will allow all advanced practice nurses in VA facilities to work as independent licensed practitioners, even in states that traditionally require physician oversight in matters of diagnosing and treating, and prescribing medication. The initiative "had been sitting there for three years when I got here," says Gage. "But I have support from the administration, and we are getting ready to put it into the federal registry and move it forward. I'm very pleased about that." As chief nurse of the largest healthcare system in the country, Gage says she wants to "bring nursing to the table" during high-level decision-making. "I am beginning to change the culture of having nurses be a part of the team." After studying nursing at the college, Gage worked as a clinical nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and then became a nurse manager at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. She worked her way up the administrative ladder there, ultimately serving as chief nursing officer from 2001 through 2011. "Sometimes there's a gap created when people move into administrative roles— to know and understand what's still happening at the bedside," she says. "I never lost that." As for her work with the VA post-scandal, Gage is frank: "I'm trying to learn all that I can about the past, so that going forward we don't repeat history and things that didn't work." —Molly Petrilla Nursing alumna is playing a key role in fixing the Veterans Health Administration