Wesorick Center names executive director

Evelyn Clingerman joined the Wesorick Center, housed in the Kirkhof College of Nursing, in August to serve as executive director.

In that role, Clingerman will help develop the center’s strategic plan, seek national grants and and mentor faculty and graduate student research projects. The center is named for Bonnie Wesorick, founder of the Clinical Practice Model Research Center in Grand Rapids.

Wesorick’s work has has focused on the development of a framework to transform health care systems; Clingerman said the transformation happens “where the hands of those that give and receive care meet.”

“I’m so very honored and humbled to direct this center,” Clingerman said. “The framework that Bonnie has developed will link the best evidence of clinical practice to academic programs that will contribute significantly to improve health outcomes for patients.

“The center is in an optimum position with KCON’s Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program, to serve the next generation of nursing scholars that will guide and apply the best evidence in clinical practice settings.”

Clingerman said the center’s goal is to provide scholarly leadership bringing interprofessional teams together to utilize the best evidence in practice and the best technology to create sustainable changes in health care.

She earned a doctoral degree from Catholic University of America and, prior to working at Grand Valley, served a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas, Austin, and continued as a nursing faculty member.