Elena Capella, EdD, MSN/MPA, RN, CNL, CPHQ, LNCC

Elena Capella is an experienced educator who teaches leadership, health care quality, and regulatory compliance. Dr. Capella enjoys working with health care professionals who are completing their graduate degrees in nursing. Her doctoral research focuses on the leadership challenges faced by physicians transitioning from independent clinicians to health care system administrators and how these leaders support the improvement of clinical services.

Dr. Capella has worked as a consultant on health care risk management at Dignity Health and developed the first department of compliance and regulatory services at the Central California Alliance for Health. In this work, she supported the Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz, Monterey, and Merced in providing access to high-quality health care services for 250,000 low-income residents. Her teaching is focused on scholarly reflection with values clarification and strives to incorporate contemplation into strategic leadership. She is inspired by working with students who use improvement and caring science to improve health care outcomes.

• Patient Safety
• Quality Improvement
• The Diffusion of Clinical Innovation

• Director Online RN to MSN, University of San Francisco, 2015–18

• Ed.D., University of San Francisco

• Assistant Professor, University of San Francisco, 2013–present
• Part-Time Faculty, University of San Francisco, 1997–13
• Lecturer, San Jose State University, 1999–13
• Director of Compliance, Central California Alliance for Health DBA Santa Cruz Monterey Merced
• Managed Medical Care Commission, 2007–11
• Risk Services Consultant, Dignity Health, 1998–07
• Risk Consultant, Affiliated Risk Control Administrators, 1993–98
• Director of Patient Administrative Services, Dominican Hospital, 1987–93

• USF School of Management Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching

• Healthcare Systems and Organizational Structure (Chapter 13). Essential Knowledge for CNL and APRN Nurse Leaders. (2019)
• Legal, Policy, and Ethical Issues in Health Care Financing (Chapter 10), Financial and Business Management for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (2018)
• Project Management and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (Chapter 13), Financial and Business Management for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (2018)
• The Role of Physician Administrators in Promoting the Adoption of New Medical Treatments. UMI Dissertation Services, (May, 2006)
• A Conceptual Framework for a Clinical Nurse Leader Program (with Margaret Maag, Robin Buccheri, and Diana Jennings). Journal of Professional Nursing, (November-December 2006)

Licenses and Certifications

• Clinical Nurse Leader Certificate
• MedTeams Instructor Certificate
• Legal Nurse Consultant Certificate
• Quality Assurance Certificate
• Publications & Presentations

Publications & Presentations

Publications

• Project Management and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (Chapter 13), Financial and Business Management for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (November, 2012)
• The Role of Physician Administrators in Promoting the Adoption of New Medical Treatments. UMI Dissertation Services, (May, 2006)
• A Conceptual Framework for a Clinical Nurse Leader Program (with Margaret Maag, Robin Buccheri, and Diana Jennings). Journal of Professional Nursing, (November-December 2006)
• Managing Change (Chapter 12),Legal Business Principles for Legal Nurse Consultants, (October, 2005)
• Multimedia Statistics: A Design-Based Study of the Benefits of Student-Generated Multimedia for Learning in a Foundation-Level Statistics Course (With Mathew Mitchell and Pamela Andreatta). World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Telecommunications, (June 2004)
• Integrating Multimedia: Demonstrations of Student-Generated Products Made Within Regular Content-Driven Courses. (With Mathew Mitchell and Pamela Andreatta). World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Telecommunications, (June, 2004
• Ethical Theory and the Practice of Legal Nurse Consulting (Chapter 8), Legal Nurse Consulting Principles and Practice, (November, 2003)
• Legal, Policy, and Ethical Issues in Health Care Financing (Chapter 10), Financial and Business Management for the Doctor of Nursing Practice (2018)
• Healthcare Systems and Organizational Structure (Chapter 13). Essential Knowledge for CNL and APRN Nurse Leaders. (2019)

Presentations

• Public Administration Theory Conference, San Francisco. Disrupting the Status Quo: How One Organization Increased Intra- organizational Accountability and Collaboration (June, 2013)
• Teaching Public Administration Conference, San Francisco Increasing Graduate Student Accountability and Willingness to Collaborate in Group Projects (June, 2013)
• Association of California Nurse Leaders (ACNL), Central Coast Chapter Institute for Healthcare Improvement: Up Close and Personal (July, 2013)

Media Interviews

• Huffington Post
• CBS
• Journal of Advanced Practice Nursing
• Fierce Healthcare
• Scrubs Magazine