Northern New Jersey Chapter

Areas Served

The Northern New Jersey Chapter of the Preventive Cardiovascular Nursing Association serves northern New Jersey and parts of New York. (Morristown, Hackensack, Newark, Sussex, Morris, Essex, Mercer, Hudson, Bergan, Somerset, Union, Hunterdon, Momouth and Middlesex Counties).

Volunteer

Contact Irina to learn more about getting involved with the Erie Chapter.

Chapter Background

Get to Know Your Chapter Leadership Team!

Dr. Irina Benenson

A practicing family nurse practitioner, Dr. Irina Benenson serves as an assistant professor at the Advanced Nursing Practice Division, Rutgers University School of Nursing, where she teaches graduate level clinical courses.

Dr. Benenson’s scholarship focuses on improving healthcare outcomes of individuals with chronic medical conditions, especially hypertension and other cardiovascular comorbidities. The primary area of her research is to identify risk factors for hypertensive crisis and resistant hypertension among high-risk individuals (diabetics, African Americans, older adults). Trained in systematic review methodology, Dr. Benenson is part of the Northeast Institute for Evidence Synthesis and Translation (NEST) at Rutgers School of Nursing. She has multiple publications on hypertension, she presented on several national and international conferences. Her work was recognized and cited by many scholars.

A nationally certified family nurse practitioner, Dr. Benenson has worked for more than 20 years providing direct care for patients in inpatient and outpatient care settings. She maintains her clinical practice as a primary care nurse practitioner at Rutgers Community Health Center. Dr. Benenson earned her MSN and DNP degrees from Rutgers University.

Dr. Kimberly Buff Prado

Dr. Kimberly Buff Prado is an assistant professor, within the Advanced Nursing Practice Division, for Rutgers University School of Nursing. Dr. Prado Graduated from Rutgers in 2010 with her DNP, and in 1995 for her MSN, in the Advance Practice Acute Care track. Dr. Prado also became nationally certified In Adult Gerontology.

Dr Prado served as the first private practice Cardiology Nurse Practitioner affiliated with Morristown Memorial Center (MMC) in 1995 and was instrumental in the development and implementation of policy & practice guidelines for Nurse Practitioners at MMC.

Dr. Prado’s scholarship has focused on improving outcomes within the adult and Geriatric population. With over 33 years of Nursing experience, Dr. Prado maintains her clinical practice in Integrative Health and Cardiology at Summit Health, New Jersey.

The primary area of Dr. Prado’s research covers Dyslipidemia, Nutrition and Preventative strategies of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular disease. Dr. Prado has published multiple peer review journals and has presented at national and international conferences. Dr. Prado received the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, Evidence-Based Practice Award, and also the Rutgers School of Nursing Educational opportunity fund faculty special recognition award.