Dr. Virginia Lee Cora's passion is care of older adults. As the first GNP licensed in Mississippi, she developed adult/gerontological NP programs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and was the first NP in the UMMC Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry, in Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry clinics and four nursing homes. She initiated the Mississippi Educational Consortium for Specialized Advanced Practice Nursing, a collaborative program to offer GNP and Psych NP clinical tracks at all five state NP programs and teach these students together via distance learning from one school, currently UMMC for Adult-Gero NPs and USM for Psych-Mental Health NPs. Dr. Cora was president of the National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners, is a fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and is in the MNA Hall of Fame. With blending of the GNP and ANP roles, Dr. Cora is concerned about the inconsistencies in competencies of these roles.
Evelyn Duffy is a past president of GAPNA and currently serves as the co-chair of the Health Affairs committee and one of GAPNA's representatives to the LACE Consortium. She has over 30 years experience as a nurse practitioner and for over 20 years has been on faculty at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, where she directs the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care NP program. Her work with the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty and the LACE Consortium has been instrumental in informing her regarding the current discussion of defining the roles of Primary Care and Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Practice.