VADNP President Dr. Lorri Birkholtz

Lorri Birkholz received her Diploma in Nursing from  Presbyterian/St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Denver, Colorado, her BSN from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, her MSN in Nursing Administration and Nurse Educator certificate from the University of Texas-Arlington, and her DNP from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. Currently, she works as an Assistance Professor at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA.   

In the first two decades of her career, she primarily worked in emergency nursing and critical care transport. In subsequent years, Lorri worked in various leadership positions including the role as Director of Nursing Operations at a large inner-city hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. In her current academic position, she teaches graduate nursing students, primarily DNPs.  Lorri has maintained specialty certification throughout her career, and currently holds certification as a Board-Certified Nurse Executive.  Professional memberships include the American Nurses Association, Pennsylvania Nurses Association, Virginia Association of DNPs, American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, and Sigma Theta Tau.  Areas of scholarship include moral distress in nurses, compassion fatigue, social justice, power in nursing, and enhancing learning and critical thinking by supplementing instinctual/emotional learning with analytical knowledge.