Nurses Educational Funds, Inc.

Edwidge J. Thomas, DNP, FAAN

Dr. Edwidge Thomas joined the NEF Board of Directors in 2017 and serves on the Executive Committee, Criteria and Eligibility Committee, and Finance/Investment Committee. Edwidge is currently employed with Holdings and Ventures to provide clinical leadership to the business development team with a focus on the identification, development, commercial launch and management of new business and clinical solutions/products for the betterment of patient care outcomes and experience as well as improving quality and efficiency in care delivery and contributing to the success of Northwell Health.

She was Clinical/Executive Director at the Mount Sinai Hospital’s Performing Provider System (PPS) for Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program and was responsible for strategic direction of the PPS including developing quality medical programs, planning and implementing the clinical programs and monitoring the performance of the DSRIP projects’ metric while collaborating with PPS health organization partners as they journey to modify their infrastructure and implement clinical care and clinical operations transformation strategies to help with the transition to a value based payment system. Her responsibilities also included leading the Equity Performance programs while overseeing the activities of the PPS Board of Directors, Clinical Quality Committee as well as other committees by providing recommendations on best practices to guide the overall strategy for the PPS.

Dr. Thomas has been a key advisor to universities and major metropolitan hospitals, on preparing the nursing workforce for future health care delivery challenges and integrating Advanced Practice Nurses within acute and ambulatory care settings to implement and expand on care models inclusive of the integration of medical care, behavioral health, and the impact of social determinants of health in pursuit of the “triple aim” goals of improving the health of individuals through evidence based care and clinical outcomes, enhancing the patient experience, and reducing cost.

While at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing, she was responsible for developing innovative strategies to secure grants as the principal investigator and co-director while creating strategic partnerships to establish new practice models of care that addressed all populations including the underserved and vulnerable. She led practice and community engagement initiatives including: a nurse–managed primary care practice for adults; a mobile health van program providing primary care services; and the implementation of a health literary project for underserved adolescent students at high schools in Brooklyn, New York. Through all of her efforts as the co-director of these projects, she and her team secured a $2.9 million Health Resource Service Agency (HRSA) grant to launch and sustain the adolescent program. Other notable outcomes from her community focused efforts were revenue enhancing programs that significantly increased patient visits and advanced practice nurse presence, as well as increased partnerships with community based programs and agencies that were able to implement innovative delivery models of care.

Early in her career, Dr. Thomas was a founding member of the first nationally known independent Nurse Practitioner primary care practice at Columbia University School of Nursing serving a commercially insured patient population in a highly competitive New York Market.

Dr. Thomas received her Bachelor of Arts and Science at Rutgers University, Masters of Science and Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Columbia University School of Nursing, and Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Service Research at Cornell University. Most recently, she is humbly honored to have been inducted into the New York Academy of Medicine, received Community Healthcare Network’s (CHN) award for Healthcare Innovation, and completed the Wharton Nurse Leader Program at The Wharton School Aresty Institute of Executive Education.