UMSON’s Charlotte A. Seckman Named Co-Director of MSN Nursing Informatics Specialty and Graduate Certificate

Baltimore, Md. - Charlotte A. Seckman, PhD '08, RN, NI-BC, CNE, FAAN, associate professor, has been named co-director of the University of Maryland School of Nursing’s (UMSON) Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) Nursing Informatics specialty and graduate Nursing Informatics Certificate.

As co-director, Seckman will share responsibilities for leading the specialty with Cheryl Fisher, EdD, MSN, RN, associate professor.

Seckman will support and oversee the nursing informatics curriculum. This includes guiding the programs for compliance with standards, recruiting new students, managing operations, and planning strategically for future growth. She also coordinates, develops, and teaches master’s and DNP nursing informatics courses, mentors and advises graduate-level students, and prepares future generations of nurses with informatics competencies for leadership roles in health care.

Seckman joined UMSON as an adjunct faculty member in the Nursing Informatics specialty in 2000 and became a full-time faculty member in 2010. She retired in 2021, served as an adjunct in 2022 and then returned to UMSON in 2023 as an associate professor, teaching in the MSN Nursing Informatics specialty, bringing a wealth of experience from the practice setting, where she directed, designed, implemented, and evaluated numerous electronic health record-related projects. Her prior work at UMSON included coordinating and teaching informatics courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels along with mentoring Doctor of Nursing Practice and PhD students.

“I am thrilled that Dr. Seckman has joined Dr. Fisher as co-specialty director for the Nursing Informatics MSN program,” said Lori A. Edwards, DrPH, BSN ’80, RN, CNS-PCH, BC, FAAN, associate dean for the Master of Science in Nursing program. “Dr. Seckman is not only a nationally renowned nurse informatician, she also brings extensive expertise as an experienced faculty member. Her deep knowledge of nursing informatics, curriculum design, and nursing education will undoubtedly be invaluable to the program. It is truly a pleasure to work closely with her, and I look forward to seeing the continued growth and success of the program under her leadership.”

Seckman is a board-certified informatics nurse with more than 30 years of experience. Her work focuses on improving care using innovative and emerging technologies and is recognized nationally and internationally through numerous publications, presentations, and book chapters.

At the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center from 1999 - 2010, she served as a project officer for the implementation of the Clinical Research Information System and director for EHR support, change management processes, informatics education, evaluation, and research projects. In collaboration with the National Library of Medicine, she was instrumental in the design and implementation of a prototype system for providing evidence-based resources for nurses at the point of care. 

Her research interests focus on artificial intelligence, translating evidence into health care practices, developing personalized clinical decision support tools, optimizing EHR systems, reducing documentation burden, evaluating online learning modalities, and exploring informatics competencies to prepare a ready workforce.

Seckman earned her PhD in Nursing from UMSON, her MSN in Nursing Education from the University of Pittsburgh, and her BSN from the University of Kentucky. She also holds a master’s certificate in aging and applied thanatology with advanced training in artificial intelligence.

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The University of Maryland School of Nursing, founded in 1889, is one of the oldest and largest nursing schools in the nation and is ranked among the top nursing schools nationwide. Enrolling nearly 2,000 students in its baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral programs, the School develops leaders who shape the profession of nursing and impact the health care environment.