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.
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.