Program Staff

Maggie has 18+ years of experience as a clinical nurse educator for the Department of Surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. She graduated Summa cum Laude with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1983 from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois and graduated Summa cum Laude with her Master of Science degree in 2001 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

She joined the SIU Department of Surgery as the Clinical Nurse Educator for the Surgery Clerkship in 1998. She provides operational support and daily supervision of the undergraduate teaching program in the Department of Surgery and participates in curriculum development and program evaluation for SIU. Prior to joining SIU Maggie was a critical care nurse for 15 years as well as the Clinical Coordinator of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit for three years at Memorial Medical Center in Springfield, Illinois.

Maggie has received multiple awards and honors including the “Excellence in Teaching” Award for the Department of Surgery every year since she joined SIU in 1998 as well as the Outstanding Surgical Educator Award for the Department of Surgery. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau and Phi Kappa Phi. Her research interests include surgical education and she has given numerous national and inter-national presentations as well as publications in peer reviewed journals. She is an active member of the Association for Surgical Education and is a past chair of the national Nurses in Surgical Education committee and is active on numerous committees for SIU. She was instrumental in designing the first Resident Readiness elective that has become nationally accepted as a critical course offered to all medical students interested in a career in surgery. She is also co-creator and co-director of the Interprofessional Mock Page Simulation Program that is recognized as a key element of the national Surgical Residency Preparatory curriculum that notably has received letters of support from the American Board of Surgery, American College of Surgeons, Association of Program Directors, and the Association of Surgical Education.

Cathy started her career as a clinical nurse educator for the Department of Surgery at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in 1998. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1988 from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Illinois. Her Master of Science degree was completed in 2001 at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

She Joined the SIU Department of Surgery as an Educator of Clinical Surgery in 1998. She provides operational support and daily supervision of the undergraduate teaching program in the Department of Surgery and participates in curriculum development and program evaluation for SIU. Prior to accepting the position at SIU she was charge nurse on the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit and the general Cardiac Unit for 10 years. She also has experience in home health nursing.

Cathy has received multiple awards and honors including the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Department of Surgery every year since she has joined SIU in 1998 and Outstanding Surgical Educator of the Year award in 2011. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, international Honor Society of Nursing and Association of Surgical Education (ASE) including past chair of Nurses in Surgical Education within the ASE. She has numerous publications in peer reviewed journals. Her general research interests are medical student education and resident performance.  She was instrumental in designing the first Resident Readiness elective that has become nationally accepted as a critical course offered to all medical students interested in a career in surgery. She is also co-creator and co-director of the Interprofessional Mock Page Simulation Program that is recognized as a key element of the national Surgical Residency Preparatory curriculum that notably has received letters of support from the American Board of Surgery, American College of Surgeons, Association of Program Directors, and the Association of Surgical Education.