Kathy McGuinn is the Director of Interprofessional Education and Practice Partnerships and Special Advisor on Quality Initiatives at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). At AACN, Ms. McGuinn has been involved in facilitating a variety of initiatives including the creation and updating of AACN’s foundational standards documents, most recently, The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education.

In addition, Ms. McGuinn has served as a national quality expert for AACN, overseeing Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) faculty development grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. From 2009-2012, she oversaw the curriculum development and roll-out of nine regional undergraduate QSEN faculty development institutes; from 2012-2014, she oversaw the curriculum development and roll-out of five graduate regional QSEN faculty development institutes. Further, Ms. McGuinn has been active in AACN’s strategic initiatives related to interprofessional education, which includes assisting with the planning of the national Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Institutes, and actively participating with the Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative (IPC). Most recently, Ms. McGuinn was the lead staff for the groundbreaking report, Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing.

Prior to joining AACN, Ms. McGuinn was on the Senior Management Team at The George Washington University Hospital as Director of Quality and Education. In addition, Ms. McGuinn was an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Marymount University for twelve years.

Ms. McGuinn received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and her graduate degree from the Catholic University of America. She is credentialed as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) and a Fellow in the National Academies of Practice (FNAP).