Mount Nursing News
New advancements in the Mount’s Simulation Lab | Nursing Workforce Diversity program
Alumni Recognition: Dougherty | Alumni Recognition: Bilsky
Message from the Dean
Greetings! Happy spring and welcome to the first edition of the 2025 Mount School of Nursing (SON) alumni newsletter! As the Interim Dean, I am honored to be part of the SON with its legacy of excellence in preparing nurses for the future. I began my professional nursing career after graduating with a BSN from The Catholic University of America as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army, stationed at the USMA, West Point, N.Y. Working at the Mount has been a wonderful return to the Mid-Hudson Valley! I love the beautiful campus and our nursing students and faculty.
This newsletter, written in partnership with the Alumni Council, provides updates on SON programs and activities, in addition to highlighting two distinguished nursing alumni for their outstanding contributions to the SON, healthcare, and nursing education. Future issues will focus on alumni, their careers, and their lives after the Mount.
In October, we will be sponsoring an alumni reception. All alumni within and beyond the Mid-Hudson valley are invited! The event will include recognition for their contributions to for their work and support of the MSMC SON. We need your help in updating our alumni lists, so please update your current contact information here.
Current Happenings: On March 23, accepted students and parents were invited to campus to learn more about the college and their major. This event was a wonderful opportunity to show new students that the School of Nursing is a great place for learning and acquiring the values and skills needed for a successful nursing career. A second Accepted Students Day will take place on April 6.
Highlights from the School of Nursing
New advancements in the Mount’s Simulation Lab
By Stacia Donaldson, Director of Simulation program
In January 2025, the Simulation Learning and Resource Center at the Mount’s School of Nursing launched a virtual reality (VR) project designed to enhance the clinical decision-making skills of senior undergraduate students. Utilizing Lippincott's vrClinical for Nursing, students are immersed in a virtual hospital environment where they have the opportunity to care for up to four virtual patients simultaneously.
For many students, the VR project marks their first experience managing a multi-patient assignment. The interactive nature of VR allows students to engage in real-time conversations with virtual patients, receiving immediate feedback that helps to refine their communication and interpersonal skills. The virtual patient’s diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds provide opportunities for students to interact with individuals they may not normally encounter in the clinical setting.
Throughout the immersive experience, students are tasked with assessing patients, answering call lights, delegating, administering medications, and providing patient education. These activities closely replicate the feel of working in a fast-paced healthcare setting, allowing students to develop the critical skills needed for high-quality patient care.
The School of Nursing’s implementation of VR technology provides a progressive approach to preparing students for the modern healthcare environment. Looking ahead, the Simulation and Learning Resource Center is expanding the use of VR to the Mental Health Nursing undergraduate program this fall.
You can support the Mount's Simulation Lab here!
Nursing Workforce Diversity program yields skilled, compassionate nurses
By Irene Belen-Jones, Assistant Director, and Kaitlin Pevny, Program Coordinator
The School of Nursing was awarded a $1.6 million, three-year Nursing Workforce Diversity (NWD) Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in August of 2022.
The NWD program focuses on the recruitment, support, retention, and graduation of nursing students from underrepresented groups. It increases nursing education opportunities and assists students from disadvantaged backgrounds to become baccalaureate-prepared nurses, equipped to provide quality and culturally-aligned care to communities in need.
Since receiving the grant, Mount nursing students in the program have had many opportunities to serve the Newburgh community and foster leadership skills, empathy, compassion, and confidence. The program also offers sessions led by guest speakers or panels covering current and trending topics, along with the introduction to the array of specialties under the nursing profession.
The NWD program succeeded in its effort to expand the nursing workforce in its inaugural year at the Mount, producing eight graduates, five of whom are working in underserved communities. In 2024, NWD recognized 17 graduating students. The current class, which will produce 26 graduates in May, has already seen success. Some in this group started as shy sophomores, but now are ready to graduate with greatly enhanced leadership skills, learned through the programs and services offered throughout their time in the NWD program.
Plans are already underway to continue the NWD program at the Mount. The application for continued participation in the program was submitted on March 19, 2025.
ALUMNI RECOGNITION
Dr. Mary Ellen Doherty, PhD, RN, CNM, FACNM
Along with her twin sister, Mary Ellen (Scannell) Doherty was in the second BSN in Nursing class (1972)
at the Mount, and developed her passion for maternal-child nursing during her maternity clinicals. After two years in medical surgical nursing, she attended Rutgers University’s MSN program and specialized in maternal-child nursing. At graduation, she moved to Boston, MA, and ran a neighborhood health center in a low-income housing project in North Cambridge. She saw patients as a Family Nurse Practitioner/Maternal-Child Clinical Nurse Specialist.
Mary Ellen returned to NJ to attend the Nurse Midwifery program at The University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ after five years at the health center. She returned to Boston and became a Certified Nurse-Midwife at Neponset Health Canter with privileges at St. Margaret’s Hospital for Women in Dorchester, MA. Later she joined the OB-GYN practice of Dr. Frederick Lea. In 1987, she founded Concord Nurse-Midwifery Associates and hired two nurse-midwife colleagues. Dr. Lea covered their practice for consultations and complications. This was the first nurse-midwifery private practice in Massachusetts and it thrived for many years. Mary Ellen left the practice when she received her PhD in Nursing from the University of Rhode Island in 2000.
Mary Ellen was a professor at Northeastern University, University of Massachusetts-Lowell and has been at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) for 16 years. She teaches in the BS, MSN, and doctoral programs. Mary Ellen is a prolific researcher and presented her research all over the US, England, Canada, Ireland, Austria and Denmark. She has written more than 20 research articles in scholarly journals including Journey of Nursing Scholarship, Journal of Nursing Education, and The Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. In addition, she has published three books, based on her qualitative work and co-authored with her twin sister, Dr. Beth Scannell-Desch: Nurses In War: Voices from Iraq and Afghanistan (2012), Nurses After War: The Reintegration Experiences of Nurses Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan (2016), and Women’s Journey’s to Posttraumatic Growth: A Guide for the Helping Professions and Women who have Experienced Trauma.
She became a Fellow in the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) in 2020, an honor recognizing clinical excellence, outstanding scholarship, and professional achievement. Mary Ellen was the first nurse to ever receive the Norton Mezvinsky Award for Excellence in Research, Connecticut State Universities System, and the Board of Regents of the State of Connecticut. She was named a ‘Luminary,’ at University of Rhode Island, a College of Nursing, 75th Anniversary for her outstanding contributions to nursing and midwifery, nursing education and research.
Outside of work, Mary Ellen enjoys playing the piano, singing, traveling, working out, and going to the ballet with her husband, Len. Mary Ellen is a grandmother and enjoys spending time with her granddaughters, Maeve Marie and Sophia Angela, and her grown children.
Mary Ellen has fond memories of MSMC. She credits Sr. Leona DeBoer as being her first mentor and nursing role model. Mary Ellen states that the “MSMC nursing program successfully laid the foundation for excellence in practice and gave us the beginning tools to be solid clinicians, teachers, and researchers and desire to further our education. We owe a lot to MSMC and its outstanding nursing program.”
Mary Ellen retired from Western Connecticut State University in 2024 as a Professor Emeritus. She remains chairperson on several dissertation committees, and she is working on her first novel.
Christina Bart Bilsky ’85, Mount trustee
Christina Bart Bilsky was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., where she attended Preston High School. She received
her BSN from Mount Saint Mary College in 1985. The extraordinary education opened innumerable opportunities in her career, but her experience at the Mount provided so much more, including enduring friendships with both fellow students and faculty. She developed leadership skills as President of the student body in her junior year and a love of the outdoors and nature, replacing her fascination with concrete and car horns fostered in the Bronx.
From the Mount, Christina embarked on a 30-year career working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She held several positions at MSKCC, starting as a clinical in-patient nurse on the Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service. She ultimately worked as a CN IV in ambulatory care with Dr. Leslie Blumgart, who revolutionized hepatobiliary surgery pioneering segmental hepatic tumor resection.
Christina is committed to philanthropy with much of her efforts dedicated to improving educational opportunities and life at the Mount. She established a scholarship fund in 2016 and has hosted career nights for graduating students at her home in Manhattan. She has served on the Advisory Council of the Nursing School and is currently on the Board of Trustees. For her efforts, she was awarded the James McEnery Award for Service to Mount Saint Mary College in 2021.
She was also honored with the Joseph A. Bonura Award for Leadership Excellence at the Mount’s Annual Leadership Gala Reception in 2024. The award recognizes individuals whose professional accomplishments, service to the community, and leadership reflect the same commitment to quality, concern for neighbors, and shared prosperity that have exemplified the career and character of local restaurateur Joseph A. Bonura.
“My life is infinitely better because I had the opportunity to come to the Mount,” she said. “I’m privileged to pay it forward by supporting educational opportunities through our endowed scholarship and by serving on the Board of Trustees.”
Christina is married to Mark Bilsky, an Attending Neurosurgeon and Chief of the Multi-discplinary Spine Tumor Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her daughter, Ann Powers, ran cross-country at Northwestern University and is completing her residency in Otolaryngology at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC, which will be followed by a pediatric fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia next. Her daughter-in-law, Elyse Ausenbaugh, is a Global Investment Strategist at JP Morgan and a frequent guest on CNBC, Yahoo, and Bloomberg News.
Christina’s other passions include endurance athletic events, having completed 33 marathons with a best time of 3:04 and multiple top 10 age-group finishers in New York, Chicago and Boston as well as an age-group qualifier for the Olympic Distance Triathlon National Championships. She is currently on the Asphalt Green Masters Swim Team, requiring a dedicated effort to get out of bed by 4:30 a.m. to make practice three days per week. She is also an avid gardener and birder, both of which were cultivated by the extraordinary natural beauty seen during her time in Newburgh.