Kristen Starnes-Ott, associate dean of academics, earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from East Carolina University, a
B.S.N. from Auburn University, an M.S.N. in nurse anesthesia from the University of Southern California and a doctoral degree in nursing from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. During her doctoral work, she was named the AANA Foundation New York Life Doctoral Fellow and received the Outstanding Doctoral Award from the Zeta Pi Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau. Her research interest focuses on using simulation technology to improve provider communication and impact patient safety outcomes in perioperative care systems. She co-authored and produced the video “21st Century Simulation Innovation in Education & Research,” which received the Award of Merit-Best Shorts Competition in 2012. She has served on numerous state and national professional organizations, committees and taskforces, including the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Education and Continuing Education committees.

Cindy Corbett, formerly associate dean of research and interim chancellor for research at Washington State University Spokane, has joined USC as a SmartState Endowed Chair research professor. Corbett focuses on strategies to improve chronic illness self-management and patient safety and has received funding from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Research and Education Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institutes of Health and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Western Institute of Nursing.

Robin Dail, associate dean of faculty affairs and practice, earned an associate degree in nursing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, an M.S.N. as a neonatal nurse practitioner from East Carolina University and a doctoral degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Dail comes to USC’s College of Nursing from Duke University’s School of Nursing and School of Medicine. Inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in 2014, Dail practiced as a neonatal nurse and neonatal nurse practitioner for 30 years before beginning her academic career.  She studies thermal stability in premature infants to reduce morbidity and mortality related to hypothermia in this vulnerable population.

Alicia Ribar, assistant dean of graduate programs, has practiced professional nursing for 25 years and has more than 19 years of advanced practice nursing experience. She earned a B.S.N. degree from the University of Toledo, Medical College of Ohio, and subsequently worked in several clinical settings. In 1998, she completed an M.S.N. at Wright State University, becoming a family nurse practitioner. Ribar is certified as a family nurse practitioner by the American Nurses Cre- dentialing Center and
is recognized as an advance practice nurse by the Ohio and South Carolina Boards of Nursing. In  2012, she completed her doctoral degree in nursing at Duquesne University, concen- trating in epidemiology and transcultural health disparities. She has had active clinical practices in both acute care and primary care pediatric/family practice settings and currently maintains a clinical practice delivering health care for the Division of Inpatient Services at the Department of Mental Health of South Carolina.

Rachel Onello, director of the Clinical Simulation Lab, has more than nine years of experience in clinical simulation education with formal education from the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation, Education and Research at the University of Pittsburgh and the Center for Medical Simulation at Harvard University. She comes to Carolina from the University of Maryland, where she was the assistant  director of the simulation lab and taught clinical and simulation courses to undergraduate and graduate students. Onello’s main area of interest is in faculty development, particularly around simulation design integration and debriefing, in simulation-based encounters and also in  facilitating debriefing style feedback conversations in clinical learning environments.