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 for over 15 years.  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 Preceptor and Medical Consultant 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 has a support role for Weitzman ECHO-Pain.  He is the Chief Quality Reviewer for CeCN (CHC/Weitzman’s eConsult network.)  Dr. Wilensky is also a Clinical Instructor for U.Conn, having taught their Medical Students for over 20 years, and a Community Preceptor with 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 plant-based 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.

Michele Roy, RD, CDCES, is a registered dietician and expert on the Project ECHO CCM faculty. Michele graduated from the University of Connecticut from a coordinated undergraduate program in nutrition and has been practicing as a registered dietician since 1991. Michele began her career as a clinical and outpatient dietician, working in a community hospital and for a WIC program. In the year 2000, Michelle earned her Certified Diabetes Educator credential, which is now known as a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) credential. In the year 2007, Michele began working for the Joselin Diabetes affiliates out of New Britain, Connecticut and later transitioned to a bariatric and endocrinology office at Saint Francis until she found her way to the Community Health Center, Inc. in the year 2018. Michele still holds her CDCES credential and thoroughly enjoys working with patients who have diabetes.

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.