Rebecca Zapatochny-rufo DNSc, RN, CCRN

Dr. Rufo is an accomplished Healthcare leader with 31 years in diverse areas of Critical Care Nursing practice, Administration, Education, Telemedicine, and Informatics. Major accomplishments are directed at extensive experience in operational and service line leadership. She has over 16 years’ experience in direct leadership roles including operational, technology and informatics. She is recognized as a national leader in Telemedicine technology. Dr. Rufo is the first leader to develop 2 large Telemedicine units within 2 large Chicago Healthcare facilities. She also is the recipient of 2 national awards for excellence in Telemedicine.

Dr. Rufo is currently the Director of Patient Care Informatics System Training at Presence Health in Chicago. Her large team of instructional designers and trainers are responsible for system wide initiatives and education associated with electronic health records in both inpatient and ambulatory staff. Dr. Rufo believes in lifelong learning and has consistently served a dual role as a faculty member at several universities. She is an active Associate Professor in traditional /online Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing programs for the past 6 years. She possess approximately 29 years of teaching a wide variety of adult learning settings, topics, and strategies.

Dr. Rufo belongs to numerous professional organizations and presents nationally on telemedicine, leadership, educational and informatics topics. She is an accomplished author of several journal publications and serves as a content reviewer for 2 profession journals.