SUNY Adirondack professor named SUNY fellow

QUEENSBURY,  New York (Nov. 12, 2025) — SUNY Adirondack is proud to announce that Mary McDermott, DNP, RN-PNP, professor of Nursing, is among the second cohort of the SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year.

"The Health Sciences Division team is proud of Dr. McDermott for her selection as a SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellow," said Kim Hedley, Ph.D., professor of Nursing and chair of Health Sciences at SUNY Adirondack. "Dr. McDermott has made a difference at SUNY Adirondack and will now be able to share her expertise and elevate nursing simulation throughout the state."

The 14-member cohort includes 10 returning fellows from the inaugural class and four new fellows. Through advanced professional development and the creation of system-wide resources to support simulation professionals, the SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellowship will help advance simulation-based education within SUNY’s nursing licensure programs.

“SUNY is at the forefront of innovative academic and professional development models to help train the next generation of nurses and health care professionals,” said SUNY Chancellor John B. King. “The SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellowship supports educators from throughout the SUNY System to help generate materials that will provide nursing students with realistic and hands-on experience as part of their coursework.”

The SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellowship was developed based on recommendations from the SUNY Future of Health Care Workforce Task Force, to help address the critical health care workforce shortage and work toward Gov. Kathy Hochul’s goal of increasing the health care workforce in New York state by 20 percent.

"I am honored to have been selected as a Nursing Simulation Fellow within the SUNY system," McDermott said. "I am looking forward to playing a key role in promoting best practices in simulation and further developing the SUNY Simulation Shared Resource Library."

McDermott is an expert in neonates, pediatrics, neurology, case management and simulations. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Thomas Edison University, and a pediatric nurse practitioner post-master's certificate and doctorate in nursing practice from Seton Hall University.

Building on the success of the past year, SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellows will play a key role in developing the SUNY Simulation Shared Resource Library, which launched as a pilot in June 2025.

The SUNY Simulation Shared Resource Library is a new SUNY-wide resource designed to support simulation educators. Initial content of the library was developed by 2024-2025 SUNY Nursing Simulation Fellows and includes a new educational training series on core health care simulation best practices, as well as the SUNY Shared Simulation & Interprofessional Education Activity Repository, a curated collection of peer-reviewed, ready-to-use simulation scenarios across diverse clinical specialties. The 2025-2026 fellows will continue new content development aligned with national simulation standards of best practice and enhance material based on pilot launch feedback.