2013 President
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.
President Elect
PAULA F. HENRY, RN, NP, JD, 
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.
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
JONATHAN STEWART, RN, MS, JD, CPPS, CPHRM 
is the risk manager at the Alaska VA Healthcare System in Anchorage, Alaska. His areas of interest include medical injury prevention, public health policy, and clinical, research, and organizational ethics. Jonathan earned his law degree from the University of Tulsa and his Master of Science in nursing (health policy) from the University of California at San Francisco. He is a member of the California bar and holds board certifications in patient safety and healthcare risk management. He serves on the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management editorial review board and is a past director of the California Society for Healthcare Risk Management. Jonathan is also the Board liaison to TAANA's Student and New Graduate Committee.
Recording Secretary
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.
Immediate Past 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.
Director
Rosemary Conlon McCarthy, MS, JD, 
is a solo practitioner in Houston, Texas concentrating her practice in healthcare malpractice and toxic tort litigation. She has managed toxic tort dockets for a national oil company in Houston utilizing her twenty eight years of litigation experience and forty three 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 most recently has been on the faculty of the School of Nursing and Allied Health 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 developed and coordinated a course concerning Vulnerable Populations including Geriatrics for undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students. While at Houston Baptist University she also coordinated the legal/ethical content across the baccalaureate nursing curriculum and was a frequent guest lecturer on legal/ethical issues in several senior level nursing courses. Ms. McCarthy is a frequent guest lecturer for local university nursing programs in the area of healthcare law. In the past she has been guest faculty with the University of Evansville at their Harlaxton, England campus working with graduate students in Healthcare Administration to compare the healthcare systems in the United States, United Kingdom and Eastern Europe.
Ms. McCarthy is a Past President of The American Association of Nurse Attorneys (TAANA) and currently serves on TAANA’s Board of Directors and as a cross-over Trustee for the TAANA Foundation. She is also a Past President of TAANA-Texas and is a founding member of TAANA-Texas. Ms. McCarthy is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, Sigma Theta Tau, the Texas Nurses Association and the American Nurses Association.
Director
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.
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
TARALYNN MACKAY, BSN, RN, JD, 
is a founding partner in the law firm of McDonald, Mackay & Weitz, LLP where her practice focus since 1997 has been administrative/regulatory law, health care law, and professional licensing issues with a primary focus on representing nurses before the Texas Board of Nursing (formally known as the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners). Ms. Mackay is Board Certified in Administrative Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specializations and she has practiced Administrative Law since 1994.
Prior to starting a private practice Ms. Mackay worked as an Assistant General Counsel and Staff Attorney for the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and the Texas State Board of Physician Assistant Examiners. After gaining invaluable insight into the functioning of regulatory boards in areas such as litigation, hearings, mediation and negotiation, Ms. Mackay became a partner in the law firm of McDonald, Mackay and Weitz and turned her focus to the representation of licensed professionals in disciplinary proceedings before their respective licensing boards and administrative agencies.
Ms. Mackay received her BSN with Honors from the University of Texas Medical Branch. Ms. Mackay practiced nursing in the following areas: ICU, CCU, Transplant ICU, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Ms. Mackay received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas School of Law. Ms. Mackay is a frequent national speaker and author on health care issues, risk management, regulatory issues, nursing and medical law. Her entertaining and engaging speaking style make her a much sought after speaker.
Director
MELINDA MITCHELL JONES 
has been on faculty with the Texas Tech University Health Science Center School of Nursing since 2004. She is now serving as Associate Professor and Department Chair for Non-Traditional Undergraduate Studies. Prior to this she was on faculty at Baylor University for nine years. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Texas Tech University as well a Masters of Science in Nursing with a focus on nursing administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Prior to entering academia Mrs. Jones served as a chief nursing officer in both for-profit and not-for-profit health care systems. She currently teaches courses in nursing law and ethics. Mrs. Jones is admitted to the State Bar of Texas, The Supreme Court of the United States, and is a member of the Lubbock Bar Association, The National Association of Nurse Attorneys, the National League of Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau International-Iota Mu Chapter. She is married to Glenn Jones, PharmD, MBA and has eleven grandchildren living throughout Texas.
Director
KATHERINE KABY ANSELMI, JD, PhD, CRNP-BC 
is an Associate Clinical Professor and Assistant Dean of Accreditation/Regulatory Affairs & Online Innovation at the College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa. Formerly she served as Assistant Dean of RN/BSN & MSN Advanced Role Programs; Assistant Dean of MSN, Online, & RN/BSN Programs; and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Nursing Programs & Clinical Compliance at Drexel University. She teaches Politics of Health Care in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, and created and teaches Experiential and Transdisciplinary Perspectives of Health Law in the MSN programs.
Dr. Anselmi is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Prior to her return to academia at Drexel, she practiced civil litigation representing survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking at the Barbara J. Hart Justice Center, a project of the Women’s Resource Center in Scranton, Pa. There she relied heavily upon her nursing skills to advocate for women and children in crisis. She has also practiced in the areas of health effects, pharmaceutical defense, personal injury, and family law. She holds a certificate in Technology Transfer from Syracuse University College of Law where she also received her JD. Currently she serves as an Arbitrator for the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania.
Dr. Anselmi’s dissertation, addressing women’s response to reproductive trauma from the Dalkon Shield IUD, was nominated Best Dissertation of the Year at the University of Pennsylvania and finalist for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation doctoral dissertation grant. Dr. Anselmi has practiced as a nurse practitioner primarily in the area of women’s health. She is licensed to practice nursing in Pennsylvania. She has taught doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate nursing for over 25 years. She is published in The Med/Surg Journal, The Nurse Practitioner Journal, Nurse Educator, Advance Online Editions for Nurses, Holistic Nursing Practice, Journal of Nursing Law, and book chapters. She has presented at national conferences on domestic violence, legal issues in nursing and higher education, clinical compliance, and the Dalkon Shield mass tort case. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), Luzerne County Law & Library Association, National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculty (NONPF), Sigma Theta Tau, and TAANA.
TAANA Board Meetings
TAANA Board meetings are held regularly by teleconference or in person and are open to members. Check the website for dates. If you would like to join a phone conference meeting or attend a meeting in person, e-mail us at TAANA@primemanagement.net.
