Faculty

Mary Blankson, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, FAAN is the lead faculty member for Project ECHO Complex Care Management and is the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Community Health Center, Inc., overseeing diverse nursing services across the CHC network, including primary care, health care for the homeless, and school based health services. As CNO she ensures the quality and expansion of nursing services, the development of nursing policy, and continuing nurse education. Mary also works collaboratively to ensure Joint Commission and Patient Centered Medical Home compliance throughout CHC. Building upon her service in various missions organizations, Mary continued to develop her passion for meeting the needs of the underserved by earning her MSN at Yale University in 2005. Mary joined CHC as a family nurse practitioner shortly after graduation. While at CHC, Mary has served as the On-Site Medical Director of the New London County Sites, the Vice President of the Medical Staff, the Chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, and has served as a preceptor for CHC’s Nurse Practitioner Residency Program. She has earned a DNP at Johns Hopkins University. Mary is certified and holds professional membership in the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. While in New London as a primary care provider, Mary was the New London County Project ECHO HIV/HCV representative. Her passion to support the management of hepatitis C within the primary care setting is what promoted her choosing her DNP capstone entitled: “Increasing Identification and Treatment Referral of Individuals with Hepatitis C (HCV) in the Primary Care Setting Through Clinical Dashboards.” She continues to support various other quality improvement projects throughout the agency to increase the visibility of nursing’s contribution to the Medical Home.

Dan Wilensky, MD is a Family Physician who has been with CHC since 2003. He obtained his MD from University of Virginia Medical School in 1992 and completed the U.Conn Family Medicine Residency in 1995. In addition to providing direct patient care to his patients at CHC's Meriden site, Dr. Wilensky serves in several roles in the Weitzman Institute focused on educating the next generation of health care providers and expanding their scope of practice. He is the Chief of Preceptor to CHC's APRN Residency Program, and provides the same support for remotely hosted residency programs. He is the medical faculty for Weitzman ECHO - complex cases, the first ECHO for nurses. He is the Medical Director for ConferMED (CHC/Weitzman's national eConsult company.) Dr. Wilensky is also a Clinical Instructor for U.Conn, having taught their Medical Students for over 20 years, and a Community Preceptor for the Middlesex Family Medicine Residency, providing supervision to MDs of 4 different training years. He likes yoga, movies, triathlon training, spending time with family, and advocating for a vegan diet, health care as a right not a privilege, and environmental issues. 

Daniel Bryant, MSEd, LPC, CCTP is the behavioral health expert on the Project ECHO CCM faculty team. He brings extensive experience and education in working with trauma and substance abuse and has worked in the Middletown community for the past three years. He works at CHC and spends most of his time treating adult and adolescent individual behavioral health clients. In addition, Dan runs the CHC Middletown Suboxone group, is a member of CHC’s Behavioral Health Quality Improvement Team, supervises Master’s level LPC interns, trains CHC’s Nurse Practitioner residents in substance abuse treatment and diagnosis, and facilitates the In It 2 Quit group to help individuals struggling to quit smoking. He also practices Complex Care Management in the community by coordinating care for CHC patients at a local shelter and working on the Middletown Community Care Team through Middlesex Hospital.

Mary Braisted, RD is a Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist, licensed in the state of CT.  She completed her B.S in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Connecticut and completed her didactic internship with Western Connecticut Health Network through Danbury Hospital. Since becoming a dietitian in 2018, Mary has worked in various nutrition related fields to help build her experience and wide-ranging knowledge. Mary has worked in inpatient clinical, outpatient counseling, eating disorder treatment, retail dietetics, long-term care, and more. Mary delivers excellent patient care with a positive outlook and motivational interviewing skills. Mary excels in public speaking and enjoys working with interdisciplinary team members to provide the best nutrition care that is up to date with the current research.

Weitzman Institute Disclosure Statement

It is the policy of the Weitzman Institute to ensure that Continuing Education (CE) activities are independent and free of commercial bias. To ensure educational content is objective, balanced, and guarantee content presented is in the best interest of its learners' and the public, the Weitzman Institute requires that everyone in a position to control educational content disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. An ineligible company is one whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Examples can be found at accme.org.

Faculty participating in a Weitzman Institute-sponsored activity must disclose to the planning committee and audience all financial or other relationship(s) with ineligible companies.

Faculty Disclosures

No faculty disclosed a relevant financial relationship for this program.