Karen S. Kesten, DNP, APRN, CCNS, CNE, FAAN, Director of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects and associate professor of nursing in the Acute and Chronic Care Community at the George Washington University School of Nursing. She is licensed as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, a certified Acute and Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist, and a Certified Nurse Educator. Dr. Kesten currently serves on the National Task Force to Review and Revise the Criteria for Evaluation of Nurse Practitioner Programs. She has served as the Director of Faculty Initiatives at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and as liaison for the work of the APRN Clinical Training Task Force, the AACN Competency-based Education for Doctoral Prepared APRN Work Group, the Implementation of the DNP Task Force, and the Task Force on Defining the Scholarship of Academic Nursing. She also designed and implemented innovative and engaging learning experiences for members of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to include faculty development conferences, webinars, toolkits, community collaboration, and leadership development programs. Academically, Dr. Kesten was an associate professor at Georgetown University and was the program director for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist program. She played a critical role in the design, development, and launch of the graduate distance learning programs and the DNP program at Georgetown University. Dr. Kesten currently serves as past Chair on the Board of Directors for the Certification Corporation for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Dr. Kesten’s research and publications focus on advanced nursing practice, competency-based education, practice scholarship, and innovative educational methods.