Vice-Patrons
Kenneth Dion, PhD, MSN, MBA, FAAN is assistant dean for Business Innovation and Strategic Relationships at the John Hopkins School of Nursing and president of Sigma the International Honor Society of Nursing. He is a 40-year veteran of the health care industry.
Dr. Dion’s service to the nursing profession began in 1989 as a student at the University of Central Florida. He held offices in the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA) at the local, state, and national levels. He served with NSNA as National Secretary/Treasurer from 1990 to 1991. When called upon again later in his career, Dr. Dion served NSNA as a board member, Treasurer, and President of Foundation Board of the National Student Nurses Association. He has been recognized by the NSNA with its highest honor, honorary member.
In 1999, Dr. Dion founded Decision Critical, Inc., a cloud-based information systems company, to meet the education, compliance, and competency development needs of health care organizations. He was awarded a patent for Critical Portfolio, a first-of-its-kind ePortfolio application, and Critical Staffer, a reverse staffing system. In 2012, Decision Critical was acquired by HealthStream, Inc., where Dr. Dion served as vice president and chief of nursing informatics.
Dr. Dion joined the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 2018. In his role as the Inaugural Assistant Dean for Business Innovation and Strategic Relationships, he assists faculty and students in developing and protecting their intellectual property and increasing its impact through commercialization. Additionally, he acts as a boundary spanner between the school of nursing and other schools within the Johns Hopkins system as well as external stakeholders.
Dr. Dion is active in many nursing professional organizations. He currently serves as president of the board of directors of Sigma, the International Honory Society of Nursing. Within Sigma, he is a Virginia Henderson, Billye Brown, and Sigma Theta Tau Fellow as well as a Pillar Society Member. He is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing as well as the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland.
Dion earned his bachelor’s degree in nursing at the University of Central Florida and his MBA, MSN, and a doctorate in nursing systems at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States of America.
Donna is a Non-executive Director at East London Foundation Trust. She was the General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) until June 2021. She was responsible for delivering the RCN’s strategic and operational plans and promoting patient and nursing interests on a wide range of issues. Donna held various roles, prior to joining RCN, including clinical director or emergency medicine at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust; Executive Director of Nursing, Southeast London Cluster Board; Director of Commissioning, London Borough of Southwark & Southwark PCT. She was the Strategic Commissioner for Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Authority’s Children’s Services. Donna advised the PM’s Commission on the future of Nursing and Midwifery in 2010 and served as nurse/child health assessor to the Victoria Climbié Inquiry.
Liz Madigan is the Chief Executive Officer of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She assumed the position in November 2017 following a 21 year period as a tenured professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio. Her clinical background and her program of research focused on home health care. During her time at Case Western she led the global health initiatives for the school of nursing including leading the WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre for Home Care Nursing. She has provided consultation in multiple countries for home care and aging care in the community. In 2021, she was recognized as one of the top 100 women in global health for the Year of the Nurse and Midwife. She is a graduate of Wright State University, Dayton Ohio (BSN), The Ohio State University (MS in nursing) and Case Western Reserve (PhD), a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, Fellow Ad Eundem, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland and proud member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.
Dr Christine Taylor is a current Trustee and President of the Nightingale Fellowship, the Charity founded from the alumni of nurses who qualified from the Nightingale School of Nurses at St Thomas’ Hospital from 1860-1996, proud to be called ‘Nightingales’ and wear their distinctive badge.
Christine’s professional career has given her broad experience commissioning services and hospitals, setting and monitoring quality standards and managing in a variety of NHS settings as well as Local Government, against the backdrop of numerous service reorganizations.
Based in Derbyshire, Christine recognizes Florence’s far reaching influence in times (past, present and future) all over the UK and worldwide. In addition that The Nightingale Fellowship’s unwavering support for The Florence Nightingale Museum and its ethos is acknowledged by Trustees and members across the globe will be celebrated by this Honorary appointment for their President.
Mary Watkins, Baroness Watkins of Tavistock sits as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords and is Visiting Professor in the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Palliative Care, King’s College London; President of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and is a former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Plymouth University. She was an alternate chair of Nursing Now, a global initiative to raise the profile of nursing, and in this role was co-chair of the World Health Organisation’s review of the State of the World Nursing which reported in 2020.
Qualifying as a general nurse in 1976 and a mental health nurse in 1979, Professor Watkins worked in community, in-patient mental health and acute settings, providing non-emergency and emergency healthcare.
Professor Watkins has a particular interest in governance having been a Secretary of State nominee to the UKCC for Nursing and Midwifery (1996-2001) and was a member of the UKCC Education Commission – the Peach Review, 1999.
In the House of Lords, Professor Watkins contributes regularly in the domains of health, education and housing and sits on the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, and has recently been appointed a Deputy Speaker.
