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Mary B. Burdick, PhD, RN Dr. Mary Burdick received her PhD from the University of South Carolina (Health Promotion and Disease Prevention focus), her MS in Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing from the University of Maryland, and a BS in Nursing from the University of Colorado. After 20 years of experience encompassing research, teaching, administration and practice in diverse settings from rural and metropolitan communities to NIH to university medical centers, she joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in 1992 in Charleston, SC, in the medical intensive care unit. She established the first nursing position in the Charleston VAMC in the cardiac catheterization laboratories. Dr. Burdick is the Chief of Staff of the VA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NCP), overseeing staff and students as well as the Center's nationally focused educational and research projects and programs that promote clinical and population level evidence-based prevention services for veterans. Dr. Burdick has served as the VA representative at the United States Preventive Services Task Force sessions and the CDC's Community Preventive Services Task Force and has represented Prevention at VA Clinical Practice Guideline work groups and the Advisory Council. She currently holds adjunct appointments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the School of Nursing and at Duke University, Department of Adult and Geriatric Health, in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Dr. Burdick serves as the first VA Preventive Nursing Consultant to the Office of Nursing Services in the Department of Veterans Affairs. She established and co-chairs the Preventive Nursing Technical Advisory Group to more closely align nursing with prevention for the purpose of standardizing, enhancing and ensuring reliable delivery of comprehensive preventive services across the continuum of care. Throughout her career, Dr. Burdick has been a strong advocate of innovative activities that enhance health through effective preventive services. She has a commitment to expanding the role of prevention in the healthcare of the nation's veterans seeking to improve veterans' quality of life through prevention of disease.