About

Project Team: Original Founders

CardioVillage Course Co-Directors:

Lawrence W. Gimple, MD is Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He is Director of Clinical Cardiology and Co-Director of the Heart and Vascular Center of the University of Virginia Health System. Dr. Gimple graduated in 1983 from Harvard Medical School. He completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Gimple has a clinical practice in Interventional Cardiology, basic research interests in atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty, clinical research interests in acute coronary syndromes and outcomes after coronary interventions, and educational interests in the use of emerging technologies for teaching about cardiovascular disease and health.

Ralph S. Buckley, MD was formerly Clinical Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division. He has an interest in noninvasive cardiology, including care of patients with CAD, vascular heart disease, and arrhythmias. Dr. Buckley now practices with Cardiology Associates of Mobile, Alabama as a noninvasive cardiologist. He completed his medical training and residency at the University of Virginia where he became chief resident and, subsequently, a fellow in the cardiovascular division. Dr. Buckley helped develop the database that delivers the lessons in CardioVillage to the Internet. He began programming computers in the 1970s. When he and Dr. Gimple became interested in multimedia education, they used the Internet to bring interactive medical education to the web, creating CardioVillage: a web-based interactive initiative written by physicians for health care providers.
Drs. Buckley and Gimple were co-authors of Cases in Cardiology, an educational CD-ROM dedicated to teaching primary care physicians about cardiovascular medicine. Cases in Cardiology won the prestigious People’s Choice Award from Macromedia, an international competition for Outstanding Educational Software for adults.

CME Director:

Jann Torrence Balmer, PhD, RN, FACEHP is Director for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Co-LNP for SONCE in the School of Nursing. Dr. Balmer is a nationally-recognized authority on continuing education in the health professions. She is actively engaged in national medical education research and collaborative projects via print, Internet, and CD-ROM formats and has numerous publications in the field. Dr. Balmer has participated, and has held leadership positions within the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, including Chair, Accreditation Review Committee, and is currently serving as the Chair of the ANCC Commission on Accreditation. Her other leadership positions include Past President and Board member for the Alliance for CME (now ACEHP) and Program Committee Chair and Board Member for the Global Alliance for Medical Education (GAME). Under Dr. Balmer’s leadership, the University of Virginia Office of Continuing Medical Education has maintained Accreditation with Commendation from the ACCME. Dr. Balmer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, Master of Science in child health nursing from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Balmer’s vision is for an engaging, educational site for healthcare professionals to maintain competence and foster collaborative quality care to patients and families through multiple educational and performance improvement activities.

CardioVillage Project Owner:

Debra McMahon, PhD is a Principal of Scitent, Inc., formerly CardioConcepts, Inc. Scitent, based in Charlottesville, VA, which helps organizations bring their educational content to the internet in a compelling, efficient, and cost-effective manner. Dr. McMahon received her degree in Pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her postdoctoral training in Thrombosis and Hemostasis at UNC Chapel Hill. She worked for several years in medical writing, editing, and instructional design before joining Scitent; she has been with the company since its inception.

Additional Project Team Members

CME Project Manager:

Kathleen Bunch-Meneses, MS, is a Project Manager for Continuing Medical Education at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Since 2012, she has worked with academic researchers and clinicians to provide engaging learning opportunities for residents, fellows, and clinicians. She specializes in jointly accredited activities and online and performance improvement education.  Ms. Meneses holds a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology with a minor in psychology, and a Master of Arts in sociology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lead Nursing Content Specialist:

Drew Walton, AG-ACNP is a clinical instructor in nursing at the University of Virginia. He has worked with BSN and MSN students since 2009. He worked as a bedside nurse in the Coronary Care Unit for 6 years and for the past 3 years he has worked as an NP in Heart Transplant as a pre-transplant coordinator / LVAD coordinator.

We are grateful to the University of Virginia Nursing Content Specialists who review all modules:
Kimberly Bednar, DNP, FNP
Angela Crummett, BSN
Samantha Hobbs, MSN, RN
Sue Waters, NP

Lead Nurse Planner:

Kathryn Reid, PhD, MSN, RN, FNP-C, CNL earned a BSN, MSN, and Family Nurse Practitioner certificate from the University of Virginia, and she earned a PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Reid has received awards for excellence in teaching, innovative teaching strategies, and professional service, and was a 2005 Fellow in the AACN Leadership in Academic Nursing Program. With many years of experience in nursing education and a passion for second-degree students, Dr. Reid led the transformation of UVA’s second-degree program into an innovative master’s-entry Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) Program. She serves as a consultant for second-degree entry CNL programs across the country, and in 2007, Dr. Reid was appointed to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) national CNL Steering Committee. Dr. Reid now serves as the Assistant Director for the MSN and DNP programs at the University of Virginia.

Pharmacy Education Specialist:

Steven Dunn, PharmD, FAHA, BCPS (AQ Cardiology) is the Lead Pharmacist for Heart & Vascular at UVA Health. Dr. Dunn received his PharmD degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and did postgraduate residency training at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. He is active in the American College of Cardiology and a Fellow of the American Heart Association and American College of Clinical Pharmacy​​.

Diagnostic Catheterization and Interventional Curricula Faculty

Course Director:

Michael Ragosta, MD is Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and Interventional Cardiology UVa Health System. He graduated from Brown University in 1985. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and his fellowship in Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Ragosta’s clinical and research interests include complex coronary artery disease, interventional cardiology, high risk coronary intervention, chronic total occlusion intervention, valvular heart disease, and hemodynamics.