John O’Donnell, DRPH, CRNA, FAANA, FAAN, professor and chair of the Department of Nurse Anesthesia was recognized by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) with the Service Award during the annual international meeting.
O’Donnell has been a member of the SSH for more than 20 years. The award recognizes his long years of service with a special mention of the last four years he served as the Treasurer and executive board member. As treasurer, O’Donnell helped guide the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic with stable financial conditions, helping the organization emerge more robust than ever.
In addition, Dr. Charles Lin, an anesthesiologist at UPMC Passavant and one of O’Donnell’s mentees, received a New Investigator Award during the annual meeting. His work involves Pitt Nursing DNP-Nurse Anesthesia students as they begin to prepare multiple research publications.
O’Donnell has been active in simulation education and scholarship since 1994. Along with his roles at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, he is the Senior Associate Director at the Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research (WISER) and Co-Chair of the Research Committee. He is experienced in SSH accreditation, helping WISER achieve full accreditation in 2012 and 2017 and Fellowship in 2020. O’Donnell has received multiple awards throughout his career and has published many simulation articles and book chapters. O’Donnell co-authored the iSIM (Improving Simulation Instructional Methods) faculty development course series, offered in more than 20 countries and multiple languages. In addition, he has been the PI or Co-I of educational, research, training, and business grants, receiving more than $5 million in funding. In 2017, he co-founded Lumis Corp., an Augmented Reality (AR) simulation company that developed the InSight simulation platform currently researching opioid overdose training.