TAANA Board of Directors
2012 President
NANCY A. HOFFMAN, RN, JD
Nancy’s professional experience includes 35 years as an RN and 20 years as an attorney. Her nursing experience has mainly focused on neurosurgical and emergency-trauma care. Much of her nursing experience was in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps from which she retired in 2000.
Her legal experience includes practice in medical malpractice defense, healthcare law and risk management consultation. Currently she maintains a small consultation practice while functioning as an assistant professor of Nursing and Health Sciences at California State University EastBay.
President Elect
KATHLEEN MURPHY JONES, BSN, JD, received a bachelor's degree in Nursing from the American University in Washington D.C. in 1982. She practiced as a registered nurse for 12 years, primarily in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, California. During her tenure as a nurse, Kathleen was an active participant in many specialized medical teams that provided care to critically ill patients, such as the trauma team, the heart transplant team, the artificial heart team and the code blue team. She also served as a mentor and as the Staff Developer in the SICU and was responsible for training new nurses.
In 1993, Kathleen graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law, passing the California bar exam that same year. She began her legal practice in California at the law firm of Neil, Dymott, Perkins, Brown & Frank, specializing in medical malpractice defense litigation. In 1995, she joined the law firm of Harrison, Kemp & Jones in Las Vegas and expanded her practice to include plaintiff medical malpractice, mass tort litigation and catastrophic personal injury cases. In 1997, she became a member of the Nevada State Bar. From 2002 to 2005, Kathleen opened her own firm in Las Vegas, focusing her practice in the area of medical malpractice and nursing licensure. In 2007, Kathleen formed a partnership with her son, Kevin C. Murphy and opened the law offices of Murphy Jones LLP in San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. The firm's current main practice areas are administrative law, particularly nurses and other healthcare practitioners defense in licensing and disciplinary matters.
Kathleen's professional accomplishments have included serving on the board of governors of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, and board of director and past president for two terms of the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys. In addition to currently serving as a Board of Director of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, she also serves on the State Bar of Nevada Continuing Legal Education Committee. Her community services include board member of the St. Rose Dominican Hospital Foundation, board member and vice president of Poverello House, a non-profit day shelter for the homeless in Nevada, past member and Vice Chairman of the St. Rose Dominican Hospital Medical Ethics Committee, and past member of the Nevada State Bar Fee Dispute Committee.
Kathleen is also an active member of the State Bars of California and Nevada, the Clark County Bar, the San Diego County Bar, and the Nevada Justice Association.
Treasurer
TERESSA M. SANZIO, RN, MPA, JD, of The Law Office of Teressa M. Sanzio, P.C. in Phoenix, Arizona, is a sole practitioner, devoting her practice to administrative and regulatory law. She provides professional representation for licensed health care providers including nurses, nurse practitioners, behavioral health practitioners, physical therapists, occupational therapists, nursing home administrators, pharmacists, and osteopaths. She also practices in the area of medical malpractice litigation. In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Teressa holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, and an Associate's Degree in Nursing. Teressa's nursing background is ER and ICU. Prior to becoming an attorney, Teressa worked as a Legal Nurse Consultant, a Risk Management Consultant, and a Nurse Specialist in Quality Resource Management.
Teressa has been an active member of TAANA for several years and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of TAANA. Teressa is also a member of the Executive Council of the Administrative Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, holding leadership roles from 2003 to present, including president of the council. Teressa has a passion for representing and educating nurses. She speaks locally and nationally on the subject of disciplinary defense of nurses. Teressa is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of Arizona, and in the United States Supreme Court.
Corresponding Secretary
PHYLLIS M GALLAGHER, BA, MA, JD,represents registered nurses before the various boards in the Department of Consumer Affairs in California. She also practices in the area of probate and conservatorship law, wills, and trusts in her private law practice. Gallagher also is an adjunct faculty member at Azusa Pacific University on Bioethics and Nursing Issues to graduate and undergraduate students. She received her nursing diploma from St. Mary School of Nursing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her JD from Loyola Law School. Gallagher has been a very active member of TAANA for many years, and she currently serves as the Southern California Chapter President.
Recording Secretary
PAULA F. HENRY, RN, NP, JD
Ms. Henry has over thirty years of experience in the medical field as a Registered Nurse and Nurse Practitioner, and continues to be actively involved in healthcare issues. In the past, she was the Medical Legal Editor for the Nurse Practitioner Forum, authoring several articles pertaining to legal aspects of the Nurse Practitioners’s practice. Ms. Henry has authored chapters in two textbooks: Nurses and the Law, and Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. She is a frequent lecturer on medical/legal issues. Ms. Henry's medical expertise and experience has been an asset in her ability to provide quality legal representation to her clients. She has provided representation for all levels of healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, medical groups, an health maintenance organizations. Ms. Henry has provided legal counsel for legislative matters and administrative hearings. Since 2003, Ms. Henry has been a Court Certified Mediator and Fee Arbitrator and has been a TAANA member in good standing since 2006.Ms. Henry also currently co-chairs the TAANA Litigation Committee.
Immediate Past President
EDIE BROUS, BSN, MSN, MPH, JD, is currently in private practice as a consultant and is a practitioner in licensure defense. She also teaches seminars on legal aspects ofpractice and documentation. Her legal background is in litigation, medical malpractice defense, licensure representation and pharmaceutical class action. Her nursing background is OR, ER,Hyperbaric Oxygen, ICU, education and management. She has a Master's Degrees in both Critical Care Nursing and in Public Health.
Director
MELANIE L. BALESTRA, BS, MN, NP, JD, is a Partner at the law firm of Cummins and White, LLP, Newport Beach California. She has been a nurse practitioner and registered nurse for over thirty years. Before becoming an attorney, she taught Pediatric/PNP nursing at various colleges throughout the United States. She focuses on legal and business issues that affect physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers. This includes advising health care providers on the legal aspects of starting their own practice. She represents health care providers with criminal and civil complaints against them before their respective disciplinary boards in California and Arizona. She is counsel for the California Association for Nurse Practitioners.
Melanie has lectured on topics of disciplinary and legal issues affecting registered nurses and nurse practitioners at the California Association of Nurse Practitioners, Non-Physician Practitioners, The American Association of Nurse Attorneys, Esthetic Institute, Association of Plastic Surgery Nurses, National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners (NAPNAP) both Regional and National, California Association of Nurse Practitioner Conferences, Kaiser Foundation conferences, Michigan Association of Nurse Practitioner Conference and University at Sea. She has published articles in the Nurse Practitioner World News, Advance Practice for Nurse Practitioners, Medscape, The Clinical Letter for Nurse Practitioners, Nursing Research, Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing, Nursing Spectrum, NSO Risk Advisor, HPSO Risk Advisor. She is a past member of the Nurses Services Organization Advisory Board.
Melanie continues to work part time as a PNP and Director of Pediatrics at the Laguna Beach Community Clinic in Laguna Beach, California.
Director
KATHY ANNE MANCUSI, RN, JD, is an attorney engaged in the practice of elder law, nursing and allied health practitioner licensure law, estate planning, healthcare law, and healthcare risk management. She has had thirteen years of experience handling health and hospital law and medical malpractice issues, first as inhouse counsel for a hospital group, and later, as a staff attorney for an insurance company. She is admitted to practice law in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. Mancusi was a registered nurse at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC. Ms. Mancusi obtained her law degree from Catholic University of America School of Law in Washington, DC.
Director
ROSEMARY
CONLON McCARTHY, MS, JD, is a solo practitioner in Houston, Texas
concentrating her practice in healthcare malpractice and toxic tort litigation.
Her current practice on a part-time basis as in-house counsel for Shell Oil
Company managing the vinyl chloride monomer docket utilizes her twenty years of
litigation experience and thirty-four years in nursing.
Ms. McCarthy is admitted to practice in all courts of the State of Texas, in both the Southern and Eastern Federal District Courts of Texas, in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States and in the United States Supreme Court. She also maintains active professional nursing licenses in Texas and New York. She graduated cum laude from South Texas College of Law after receiving a Master of Science degree from Texas Women's University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Niagara University.
She is on the faculty of the College of Nursing at Houston Baptist University as an Associate Professor teaching graduate students in the Healthcare Administration program in the areas of Healthcare Jurisprudence and Ethics and Health Policy. Ms. McCarthy also coordinates a course concerning Vulnerable Populations for the undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students.
Ms. McCarthy currently serves on the Board of Directors of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys and is a past president of the Texas chapter of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys. She is a member of the boards of the Houston Trial Lawyers Association and the Texas Nurses Association, District 9. Ms. McCarthy is also a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, the Texas Nurses Association and the American Nurses Association.
Director
JONATHAN STEWART, RN, MS, JD is a risk manager at John Muir Health in Concord, California and lecturer in health law and ethics at California State University, East Bay. Prior to transitioning to risk management in 2009, he worked as a registered nurse for over twelve years, primarily in trauma and emergency services. Jonathan earned his law degree from the University of Tulsa and Master of Science in nursing (health policy) from the University of California at San Francisco. He completed a VHA patient safety fellowship in 2011. Jonathan is a member of the California bar and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management.
Become a TAANA Board Member
Click here to download TAANA's Willingness to Serve form.