NYU Meyers names Karen Mack Executive Director of NICHE

Karen Mack, DNP, MBA, APRN, has been named executive director of the Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) program at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing, a 350-member organization whose mission is to create age-friendly healthcare services for older adults.

NICHE is an award-winning nursing practice model that positions nurses to lead substantive changes in the design and delivery of nursing care to older adults to improve clinical outcomes, reduce the cost of care, and meet national quality goals. As the executive director of NICHE, Dr. Mack will oversee the growth and implementation of the NICHE practice model to improve health outcomes for older adults in care delivery settings, including hospitals and long-term care. 

Dr. Mack joined NICHE leadership at NYU Meyers as director of programs in 2022. Before joining the NICHE program office, she led NICHE implementation at MedStar Health, a ten-hospital system in the Maryland and Washington, D.C., region, for a decade. Under her leadership, the health system achieved advanced NICHE member recognition of Exemplar or Senior Friendly at all MedStar Health hospitals. She has contributed to the work of the NICHE program nationally since 2013, leading a delegation of MedStar Health nurses to the annual NICHE conferences, podium presentations at these conferences, and as a reviewer of NICHE resource materials.

Her nursing career spans four decades, including two decades as a registered nurse in emergency, critical care, and medical-surgical care settings and two decades as an advanced practice registered nurse, including two recent years as a Senior Director of Nursing Excellence and Resource Management at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center.

She is board-certified as an acute care nurse practitioner and critical-care clinical nurse specialist. Dr. Mack is a recipient of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners: Advocate State Award for Excellence, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses: Circle of Excellence Award, and the University of Maryland School of Nursing Frances Arnold Neurosurgical Nursing Award.

She is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Nursing with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Trauma, Critical Care, and Emergency Nursing; the Carey Business School of the Johns Hopkins University with a Master of Business Administration in Medical Services Management; and the George Washington University School of Nursing with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.

Mattia Gilmartin, PhD, RN, FAAN, who served as the executive director of NICHE from 2016 to January 2024 and was recently appointed the chief of staff at NYU Meyers, said, “I am thrilled that Dr. Karen Mack will serve as the next executive director of NICHE. Her wealth of experience implementing the NICHE practice model to support clinical nursing excellence in healthcare settings will be invaluable to our members as they strive to provide age-friendly nursing care.”