
Suzanne L. Staebler
About
Dr. Suzanne Staebler is a Professor on the Clinical track. She is an expert clinician, advocate, and nationally recognized leader in the field of neonatal advanced practice nursing. She has been practicing as a neonatal nurse practitioner since 1992 and has held faculty appointments at the Medical University of South Carolina School of Nursing and Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing.
Dr. Staebler received her BSN from Baylor University, her MSN from the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio and her DNP from Texas Christian University. She completed a Post-Doc Fellowship and earned a Certificate in Healthcare Financing and Systems Thinking from the Georgia Health Policy Center at Georgia State University.
Through her early involvement in neonatal professional organizations, Dr. Staebler was a pioneer for guiding policy development and implementation at both nursing and advanced practice nursing levels. Through her leadership on the LACE taskforce, Dr. Staebler provided a platform for Neonatal Nurse Practitioners to be designated as an APRN specialty population, encompassing critical, acute, and primary care of infants. Dr. Staebler has developed quality improvement and quality/productivity metric measurement tools to enhance neonatal advanced practice and improve patient outcomes.
Her scholarship is in the area of policy and advocacy, with a focus on patient outcomes, levels of NICU care and workforce. Dr. Staebler was the lead author on a white paper discussing the future of neonatal advanced practice nursing, which has served to inform all stakeholders on issues related the high-risk maternal/infant care- this paper was recently revised by NANNP. Her leadership roles within the National Association of NNPs (NANNP) were pivotal to ongoing discussions centered on developing a medical home model for premature infants. Informed by her doctoral work on designing regionalized care systems for high-risk mothers and neonates and the policy implications of regionalized care delivery models, Dr. Staebler drew on her wealth of practical experience to educate and support the expanded role of the NNP in health care delivery of this vulnerable patient population. Her impact in the policy and advocacy arena and her dedication to educating nurses about advocacy and policy has been far reaching. She has received several awards for this work.
Dr. Staebler was inducted into the American Association of Nurse Practitioners as a fellow in 2014. At the time of her induction, Dr. Staebler was the 2nd Neonatal NP fellow. Dr. Staebler was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2016 and has been awarded several prestigious policy fellowships including Faculty Policy Fellow from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the inaugural Georgia Nursing Health Policy Fellowship.
She speaks nationally and internationally on an array of topics. Dr. Staebler is the past Governing Council Chair (2012-14) for the National Association of Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NANNP), and a past member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN). She has also served as a program evaluator for Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc., formerly NLNAC. Dr. Staebler was appointed to the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA) Board of Directors as the state APRN Director from 2014-17. She was the President of the Board of Directors for the National Certification Corporation (NCC) from 2016-2019.
Dr. Staebler is currently serving as the national NP representative on the LACE Steering Committee (Jan 2021-present) and as a member of the GA Composite Medical Board’s APRN Committee (April 2019-present). She also works with the American Academy of Pediatrics NICU Verification Program as a Site Surveyor and serves as the neonatal community co-chair for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

Areas of Expertise

Publications
Alliance for Patient Access / National Coalition for Infant Health (2023). The Indirect Impact of RSV: RSV Parent and Provider Survey Results. Lead author on behalf of NCfIH.
Whalen, M.B., Staebler, S., Alessi, S.,Conway-Orgel, M., Walti, B., & Meier, S. (2022) The State of Neonatal APRN Role and Action for the Future. Professional Practice Document # 3077 National Association of Neonatal Nurses. www.nann.org
Swanson, S & Staebler, S. (2022). Leading with Emotional Intelligence and Effective Communication. HRSA CAPACITY Grant: Leadership in Primary Care. Online professional development module (CEs attached).
Swanson, S & Staebler, S. (2022). Nurse Leadership in the Primary Care Setting. HRSA CAPACITY Grant: Leadership in Primary Care. Online professional development module (CEs attached).
Staebler, S & Swanson, S. (2022). Leading Teams. HRSA CAPACITY Grant: Leadership in Primary Care. Online professional development module (CEs attached).
Staebler, S. (2021). Letter to the Editor: 2020 Workforce Executive Summary. Advances in Neonatal Care, 21(4): 252-253.
Snapp, B., Moore, T., Wallman, C., & Staebler, S. (2021). 2020 Neonatal Nurse Workforce Survey: An Executive Summary, Advances in Neonatal Care, 21(3), 242-246.
Bailey, T., Staebler, S., Pont, M., Christiansen, B. & Champion, JD. (2021) An exploration of perceived NNP authority in a restricted practice setting. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 00, 1-11. DOI #0.1097/JXX.0000000000000608.
Staebler, S. & Blake, S. (2020). Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Policy Review and New Public Health Risks for Premature and Young Infants. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice. Oct 13; 1527154420965543. doi: 10.1177/152715442096554
Staebler, S. (2020). In Conversation: A nurse practitioner discusses COVID-19 & infant health. Alliance for Patient Access. April 2020.
Chang, J & Staebler, S. (2020). White Paper: Safe RN Staffing. Georgia Nurses Association. Atlanta, GA

Teaching
I have been teaching and educating nurses since becoming a NNP in 1992. But, by far, the depth and breadth of my teaching has been in the realm of APRN programs and continuing education for APRNs. Prior to my tenure at Emory, I held previous faculty appointments and precepted multiple NP students in the clinical arena. I am passionate about teaching and setting students up to succeed in their quest to obtain clinical competence and provide evidence-base, quality clinical care in an ethical and equitable manner. I hold my students to high performance expectations, while providing the care and support they need to excel, as they balance the demands of school, work and their personal life.

Research
Dr. Staebler’s doctoral work focused on regionalized systems of perinatal care. Scholarly areas of interest include development ad validation of quality/productivity metric measurement tools to enhance NNP practice and improve patient outcomes. Dr. Staebler’s passion for health policy and advocacy focuses on areas of APRN scope of practice/regulation as well as issues impacting neonatal care and access to approved therapies, such as RSV Immunoprophylaxis.

Awards
2021 Heart of the Students Award- DNP Program, NHWSN, Emory University
2018 Distinguished Alumni, Baylor University Louise Herrington School of Nursing
2018 Outstanding Policy Leader Award, National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF)
Nov 2016 Nurse of the Year in Academic Education, March of Dimes
Oct 2016 Fellow: American Academy of Nursing
Oct 2015 Neonatal NP Excellence Award, National Association of Neonatal Nurse Practitioners (NANNP)
Ju 2015 Georgia Nurse Practitioner (NP) Advocate of the Year Award, American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
Mar 2015 Faculty Policy Fellowship (Washington DC), American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)
Ju 2014 Fellow: American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
Sep 2011 Distinguished Service Award- Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN)