Dr. Bender brings extensive expertise in patient safety, quality improvement, hospital administration, ambulatory care, critical care, emergency care, disaster management, and health care systems to her role as a consultant for Joint Commission Resources, Inc. She has a diverse background in nursing, administration, education, research, and performance improvement and has served as the Executive Director for Ambulatory Accreditation for The Joint Commission.
Dr. Bender has an academic faculty appointment at the University of Rochester, School of Nursing, Rochester, New York. While pursuing her research interest in the coordination of health care and performance improvement for quality, cost, and patient safety outcomes, she teaches leadership, health systems, population health, and evidence-based quality improvement practices in health care. She has presented her coordination of care research outcomes at the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research State of the Science conference in Washington, DC and the International Society for Quality conference in the Netherlands.
Dr. Bender served in a range of leadership roles before her faculty appointment at the University of Rochester. She has been a liaison to national professional, provider, and advocacy associations and a convener of advisory panels drawn from these groups. She is experienced in the development and implementation of organizationwide strategic project plans, as well as budget development and accountability. As an expert in communications and development of relationships within organizations, she has extensive experience as a health care administrator and strong financial, organizational, interpersonal and team management skills, all based on a philosophy of continuous improvement. In a career path marked by increasing responsibility, her roles have included emergency department clinical specialist and administrator of a hospital-based ambulatory care center that included outpatient surgery, gastrointestinal services, clinics, occupational health, outpatient clinics and emergency department.
Dr. Bender received her Bachelor's and Master's of Nursing from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.