Panel discussion March 24 to focus on transforming nursing leadership
Join the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing for the latest installment of the College’s Spring Distinguished Lecture series, featuring Gay Landstrom, president of The Landstrom Group, a healthcare consulting firm, and former senior vice president and chief nursing officer for Trinity Health; and Rayne Soriano, senior director for professional excellence, research, and innovation at Kaiser Permanente Northern California. The pair will deliver a panel discussion, “Transformative Nursing Leadership Across Two Major Healthcare Systems: Integrating Caring Science.”
The lecture, scheduled for Tuesday, March 24 at 6 p.m., will be presented in-person at the Rhode Island Nursing Education Center, 350 Eddy St., Providence. A reception in the third-floor River Lounge will precede the lecture at 5 p.m., giving attendees the chance to meet with Landstrom and Soriano, who are experts in caring science—a holistic, philosophical, and ethical framework for nursing developed by Jean Watson, founder of the Center for Human Caring and the Watson Caring Science Institute. Caring science emphasizes the importance of transpersonal caring relationships in nursing practice, focusing on the interconnectedness of the nurse, patient, and the broader environment.
Through The Landstrom Group, Landstrom provides coaching and consulting services to healthcare and academic leaders. Previously, she served as the senior vice president and chief nursing officer for Trinity Health, a national health system with 92 acute care hospitals, 100-plus continuing care locations, and numerous ambulatory clinical practice sites. She has also worked in executive roles for Ascension Michigan and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health system in New Hampshire and Vermont. Under her leadership, nursing professional practice has been hallmarked by outstanding quality and safety, leadership development, evidence-based practice, innovative care delivery models, and the expansion of staff empowerment structures.
Soriano is a nurse executive, educator, and thought leader whose work bridges strategy, equity, and human-centered care. As regional senior director for professional excellence, research and innovation at Kaiser Permanente, he leads enterprise-wide initiatives that advance clinical excellence, evidence-based practice, and innovation—anchored in caring science and quantum caring. He led the launch of the KP Caritas Coach Education Program, bringing caring science to life through nurse-led healing environments, leadership development, and system-wide culture transformation.
The lecture is free and open to the public, though advance registration is requested here. The lecture is recommended for professional nurses, nurse practitioners, nursing students, and other health care professionals.
The URI College of Nursing hosts its Distinguished Lecture Series each semester. Past lectures have been delivered by famed founder of the global health initiative, Partners in Health, Dr. Paul Farmer; former American Nurses Association President Ernest Grant; Director of the National Institute of Nursing Research Shannon Zenk; and former director of the Yale University School of Nursing Professor and Researcher Shelli Feder, among others.