The mission of CCI is to promote continuous professional development which drives safe quality patient care. We aspire to grow a community of certificants and lifelong learners for whom CCI is a catalyst and integral partner.

Dawn Whiteside has continually stressed teamwork and partnership in carrying out her complex duties in working with a diversity of partner organizations to fulfill the mission of CCI. She epitomizes lifelong learning in both her career and in establishing programs for our stakeholders. I can cite numerous examples of Dawn’s achievements in fulfilling the mission of CCI.

Dawn is an industry thought leader in nursing professional development. She played a key role in the collaboration with the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) to develop the portfolio-based credential NPDA-BC. She has led our efforts to expand our credentialing offerings in developing the Perioperative Educator (COM) Certificate of Mastery and the Perioperative Preceptor COM. These credentials will address long-term issues for perioperative nursing in providing specialist education and training based on current best evidence. To address perioperative staffing shortfalls and long-term recruiting issues she serves as adjunct faculty for the Edgewood College School of Nursing in Madison Wisconsin. Her efforts were integral in developing the NRS 480: Special Topics in Nursing and Health Care Pre-Licensure Perioperative Services Training Program. She is also a DNP student at this same college and exemplifies her personal commitment to lifelong learning.

Dawn’s technological prowess and willingness to learn have been instrumental in the startup of the CCI Learning Management System (LMS) a key component of the CCI Continuous Professional Development system supporting recertification for 6 credentials and 40000+ certificants. This LMS was built by the nursing team led by Dawn and she serves as the CCI super-user. This system provided credit for over 18000 learning activities in 2021: doubling the volume of 2020. She collaborates with the Recertification Committee to provide a system hosting more than 1000 points of no-cost professional development learning activities. In her LMS work, she has mentored and collaborated with the Credentialing Team to foster highly effective teamwork.

In addition to her primary duties, Dawn serves as a board member with ABNSC the accrediting body for many of our credentials. She has also worked closely with our partners SBMG and Beyond Clean to guide their development of microcredential/COM programs which have contributed to increased revenue for the organization. Her highly polished teamwork and communication skills have been instrumental in the startup and early success of these innovative programs. Dawn’s infectious enthusiasm and highly developed teambuilding skills have been instrumental in the recent growth of CCI and our credentialing offerings. She has done as much as any staff member to foster accountability amongst the staff and in maintaining a keen focus on the mission and vision of the organization.