The American Credentialing Center Board of Directors has appointed Dr. Karen Drenkard as the new executive director, to begin her tenure January 1, 2011. Dr. Drenkard has served as the ANCC senior director of credentialing operations since January 2010 and the director of the Magnet Recognition Program® since 2008.

Prior to joining ANCC, Dr. Drenkard served as the senior vice president of nursing and chief nurse executive of Inova Health System, a five-hospital not-for-profit healthcare delivery system in northern Virginia. Her clinical background is in medical-surgical and oncology nursing.

Dr. Drenkard is an appointed member and serves on the Executive Committee of the National Advisory Council on Nursing Education and Practice (NAC-NEP). She is a member of the Board of Visitors for the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and is a board member for the Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg, Virginia. She is an elected Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

In addition to serving on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA) and the Nursing Administration Quarterly (NAQ), Dr. Drenkard has authored several book chapters and multiple journal articles on leadership, strategic planning, and disaster management.

Her research includes serving as the principal investigator of an HRSA-funded grant implementing a human caring model in acute care hospitals. She has also conducted research on the impact of leadership styles of nurse managers and nurses' intent to leave.

Dr. Drenkard received her PhD in nursing administration from George Mason University, her master of science in nursing from Marymount University, and her bachelor of science in nursing from Russell Sage College. She was a 2003 Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and a Wharton Nurse Executive Fellow. In addition to her ANCC certification as a Nurse Executive, Advanced (NEA-BC), Dr. Drenkard is also certified as a Certified Healthcare Quality Professional (CPHQ).