Karen V. Scipio-Skinner, RN, MSN has served as Executive Director for the District of Columbia Board of Nursing since 2002. She received her BSN from North Carolina A&T State University and her MSN from Catholic University of America. She began her career as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital where she served as a staff nurse and head nurse with most of her time spent practicing as a nurse educator. She left St. Elizabeth's to accept a position as Director of Staff Development at Psychiatric Institute of Washington, DC. After leaving Psychiatric Institute, she worked as Training Supervisor for the American Psychiatric Association's Quality Assurance Department. Prior to accepting her current position as Executive Director of the Board of Nursing, she was the Nurse Associate for Practice, Education and Policy for the District of Columbia Nurses Association. While at DCNA, she was instrumental in amending the District's Nurse Practice Act resulting in the removal of practice barriers for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses allowing them to practice independently. She was also instrumental in the passage of legislation, which allowed for the establishment of the Committee on Impaired Nurses (COIN) a rehabilitation program for nurses whose practice is unsafe due to substance abuse or mental illness.

Mrs. Skinner has served as chairperson for the Robert Wood Johnson funded DC Nurse Consortium on Education and Practice, and the National Council of State Board of Nursing's Executive Officer's Network. She was also appointed to the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Ethical International Recruitment Practices, the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Panel for Health Care Reform, and the Mayor's Health Policy Council.

Mrs. Skinner was selected by the Washington Business Journal as one of the District of Columbia's "Top Ten Lobbyists"; received the District of Columbia Nurses Association's Nursing Practice Award, and in 2009 received the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners' Nurse Practitioner Advocate State Award for Excellence. In 2011she was selected by the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership as a finalist for the 2011 Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Awards for Distinguished DC Government Employees.

Catherine Alicia Georges is an educator, practitioner and community activist. Alicia, as she is known to most people, is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Nursing at Lehman College of the City University of New York. Dr. Georges was the fifth president of the National Black Nurses Association, an organization representing more than 150,000 Black registered nurses, licensed/vocational nurse and student nurses located throughout the United States, Africa and the Caribbean whose primary purpose is the advocacy for access to equal and quality health care. She is currently the President of the National Black Nurses Foundation and Chairperson of the Board for the Bronx Westchester Area Health Education Council (AHEC). Dr. Georges served on the US Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice and has served on the New York State Governor's Health Care Advisory Board and the Board of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Georges served as the Secretary Treasurer of the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks, and continues her advocacy and activist efforts while serving as a member of the Children's Aid Society Health Advisory Committee. Dr. Georges is a past President of the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS).

Dr. Georges has served as a teacher, consultant and mentor to others in the profession and has worked as a public health nurse consultant for various Head Start and pre-school programs, in New York, New Jersey and the US Virgin Islands. She formed CAG Home Health Services, a health care business in the US Virgin Islands. This business is approved as a continuing education provider by the Virgin Islands Board of Nurse Licensure.

Dr. Georges served as the Project Director of a $340, 000 W. K. Kellogg Foundation Grant to support dialogue and action to inform policy makers of the impact of the nurse shortage in minority and underserved communities. In her role as chairperson at Lehman College Dr. Georges have developed programs with universities in Korea, Denmark, Antigua and Mexico.

Dr. Georges has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards for her continued work in nursing, health care and the development of health, social and public policies. In June of 1998, Dr. Georges was the recipient of the American Nurses Association Mary Mahoney Award for her work in increasing minority representation in nursing. In February 2010, Dr. Georges was elected to the Board of Directors of AARP class of 2016.