The mission of the Community Healthcare Network Nurse Practitioner Fellowship is to support nurse practitioners from the transition of their academic program to practice while preparing them for the difficulties of caring for patients in medically underserved areas. The fellowship will be able to build upon this essential model of workforce development, expanding and improving its scope, with the aim of developing a cohort of experienced and capable clinicians and team of preceptors equipped to train and support newly licensed NPs as they enter the community health workforce. This program provides an educational environment where NPs can get hands-on experience practicing in a community-based organization, while receiving ongoing education and supervision meant to further their clinical knowledge and understanding of the complex needs of medically underserved communities and populations.
Our Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program is committed to pursuing excellence. We successfully received accreditation from the National Nurse Practitioner Residency & Fellowship Training Consortium (NNPRFTC) in June 2021, demonstrating that we meet national standards for quality.
Our Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program is in the process of reaccreditation through the Consortium for Advance Practice Providers. If you would like to provide public comment as part of our Reaccreditation Process, please visit the Accreditation Status and Public Comment Website here.
Meet The Team
Dr. Brianna Bouchez, DNP, FNP-BC
Director of the NP Fellowship Program
Brianna Bouchez is the Director of Community Healthcare Network’s Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program. Her background as a Registered Nurse is in pediatric acute care, adult intensive care and adolescent psychiatric care. After graduating from Yale School of Nursing with her MSN, she started her career at CHN as an FNP Fellow, and then a primary care provider at CHN's Harlem Health Center. In her time at CHN, she went on to earn her DNP at the University of Massachusetts. Her doctoral work focused on providing patient education for obesity management via telehealth platforms. Dr. Bouchez is passionate about improving access to primary care and believes that postgraduate training of Nurse Practitioners is key to doing so.
Maria Pizzirusso, DNP, FNP-BC, MPH
Deputy Director of the NP Fellowship Program
Maria Pizzirusso is board-certified family nurse practitioner. Her academic and clinical interests are health promotion and disease prevention in people living with HIV/AIDS. She also has specialty training in neurology. She completed her doctoral training at the Columbia University School of Nursing in 2020. Prior to this, she earned a Master of Public Health from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2012. While working in primary care during her first year of practice, she voluntarily deployed to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic response in New York City, working in some of the hardest hit areas in each of the five boroughs. After her deployment, she returned to practice at Mount Sinai Hospital, where she worked as a neurology nurse practitioner. In her time at Mount Sinai, she worked on several research projects and had the opportunity to share her work in an oral presentation at the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care’s annual conference in 2017. Maria is passionate about training the next generation of nurse practitioners to face the growing challenges of providing quality primary care. She believes care should be comprehensive with a focus on disease prevention. She also believes the key to success with any intervention is educating her patients about their illness and treatment plans, something that is unfortunately lacking in many healthcare delivery settings.
Ann Grogan, PMHNP-BC
Deputy Director of the Community Psychiatry NP Fellowship Program
Ann Grogan is a an ANCC Board Certified NYS Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner currently working as the Deputy Director of the Psychiatric NP Fellowship Program at CHN. She also treats Clients at several CHN Clinics throughout NYC.
Ann completed an undergraduate degree (BA) in Anthropology at CUNY-Hunter College in 2001; a BS in Nursing at Columbia University in 2005 and completed her Nurse Practitioner Degree in Psychiatry (MSN) at CUNY-Hunter College in 2011; She is fluent primarily in English.
Ann Grogan has 20+ years of experience in the field of inpatient and outpatient psychiatry both as an RN/NP utilizing therapeutic methods and medication prescribing/management. Ann has a wealth of experience therapeutically utilizing a person-centered approach including elements of psychodynamic, CBT and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. As a Psychiatric NP, Ann has worked primarily within NYC community-based organizations serving NYC populations including: those with SMI, chronic homelessness, DV Survivors, severely traumatized populations and LGBTQ+ communities.
Yuliana Perez, MSHA
NP Fellowship Program Manager
Yuliana Perez is the Program Administrator of the Family Medicine Residency Program and Program Manager for New York's inaugural Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program. A Fordham University graduate with a Master of Science in Health Administration, Yuliana has dedicated her career to the healthcare sector, contributing to Community Healthcare Network since 2013. Before her current roles, Yuliana played a pivotal role in Health Literacy, crafting concise materials for providers and patients, when the Marketplace (also known as Affordable Health Plans or Obama Care) piloted. In her free time, you will find Yuliana crafting, watching all the latest films, playing sports, and hiking.
Meet the Advisory Board
Caroline Dorsen, PhD, FNP-BC (she/hers)
Clinical Liaison Lead (Primary Care)
As the Clinical Liaison Lead for Primary Care, Dr. Dorsen serves as the counterpart to academic dean and facilitates information exchange between the primary care or behavioral health NPR and the academic advanced nursing education partner and ensures preceptors function as program partners. Dr. Caroline Dorsen is the Associate Dean of Advanced Practice and Clinical Partnerships at Rutgers School of Nursing, where she is an associate professor of nursing and public health. Dr. Dorsen was a faculty member and academic leader at NYU Meyers College of Nursing for 15 years prior to coming to Rutgers in the Fall, 2020. Dr. Dorsen’s passion is the interface between health and social justice. She is a nationally and internationally recognized expert and scholar on sexual and gender minority health, the immediate past Nursing Chair for GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality, and a Senior Associate Editor of the journal Annals of LGBTQ Public and Population Health. She is a member of numerous diversity and equity taskforces including for ENRS and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for Community Health Network (CHN) in NYC. In 2020, Caroline was the recipient of NYU’s Martin Luther King Faculty Award sponsored by the President and Provost. She was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2021.
Stephen Ferrara, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN
Health Education Specialist
As one of the Health Education Specialists, Dr. Ferrara collaborates with academic clinical team to assess the clinical entities’ capacities of the grant and infrastructure prior to curriculum development and provides professional activities of preceptors and other clinical staff based on needs assessment. Dr. Stephen Ferrara is an actively practicing Family Nurse Practitioner, executive, and faculty member. He combines years of clinical experience along with health policy development to increase access to nurse practitioner-partnered care in New York State by serving as executive director of the Nurse Practitioner Association New York State. He is Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs and Associate Professor at Columbia University's School of Nursing where he leads the nurse practitioner primary care faculty practice and clinical simulation. He also serves as the executive director of Jonas Nursing and Veterans Healthcare. Dr. Ferrara has received many awards for his health policy work with his most recent being inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2020.
Nitin Gumaste, MA, M.Ed.
Health Information Technology Coordinator
As the Health Information Technology Coordinator, Nitin’s experience in telehealth, health informatics, and HIPPA compliance assures successful IT models are incorporated into the community-based clinical activities of the new NPs. Nitin Gumaste, M.Ed., (Teachers College, Columbia University) is an Instructional Designer and Educational Technologist with over 16 years of experience in hospital care, academia, non-governmental organizations, and the pharmaceutical sector. Most recently, he has consulted for Cleveland Clinic, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the International Rescue Committee. Nitin's primary focus is developing learning solutions that lead to the "a-ha!" moment, where learners are able to effectively translate the knowledge they have gained into intended actions using technology as an aid to achieving learning outcomes. In his spare time, Nitin enjoys swimming, taking road trips across the country, and reading.
Marlene E. McHugh DNP,FNP-BC, AG/ACNP-BC,ACHPN, FPCN
Health Education Specialist
As one of the Health Education Specialists, Dr. McHugh collaborates with academic clinical team to assess the clinical entities’ capacities of the grant and infrastructure prior to curriculum development and provides professional activities of preceptors and other clinical staff based on needs assessment. Dr. McHugh is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Columbia University in NYC. She maintains a faculty practice in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, where she co-developed the Palliative Care Service. Ms. McHugh has a clinical nursing background in medical surgical nursing, oncology, critical care and as well as primary care. She has worked in academic family practice programs in NYC, since graduation as an FNP. She received her graduate degree as a FNP and her doctoral degree from Columbia University and she hold a post master’s certificate as an Adult Geriatric/Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a certified ELNEC Trainer (End-of Life Nursing Education) from the American Nurses Association and completed the Wharton Nursing Leaders Program in 2011. Dr. McHugh has presented nationally and internationally on the topic of palliative care, has published numerous articles and chapters on pain and palliative care. In 2014 she was inducted as a Fellow in Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing by the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and in 2019 she was the recipient of the ANA-NY award for excellence in practice.