ACNAP YoCo National Ambassador

Yoco National Ambassador Contacts

Find out more about the ACNAP Young Community - YoCo

Is your country and profession represented yet? If not, make the voice of your country heard and spread the word about ACNAP YoCo.

Become a YoCo Ambassador

Australia

Susie Cartledge - Nursing

Susie is a registered nurse and an Early Career Research Fellow in Melbourne, Australia, whose research focuses on patient education and cardiac rehabilitation, including digital health and wearable devices. Actively involved with the Australian Cardiovascular Health and Rehabilitation Association, Susie looks forward to representing Australia and supporting young nurses, allied health professionals and researchers through YoCo.

Austria

Karin Hinterbuchner - Nursing

Karin is enrolled in a master’s in science of nursing programme in Graz, Austria. She seeks to strengthen the relationship with ACNAP and promote networking amongst cardiac nurses and allied professionals (NAPs) in Austria.

Belgium

Liesbet Van Bulck - Nursing

Liesbet is a PhD fellow at the Academic Center of Nursing and Midwifery of the University of Leuven in Belgium. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Nursing in Brussels in 2014 and her Master degree in Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Leuven in 2016. Her doctoral research focuses on healthcare utilisation of patients with congenital heart diseases. Liesbet is a board member of the Belgian Working Group on Cardiovascular Nursing, part of the Belgian Society of Cardiology, since 2017 and is looking forward to building a bridge between this national network and ACNAP YoCo.

Brazil

Ana Carolina Queiroz Godoy Daniel - Nursing

Ana Carolina is a Registered Nurse, has a PhD in Sciences by the Ribeirão Preto College of Nursing - University of São Paulo - Brazil, Scientific Director of the Nursing Department of the Society of Cardiology of the State of São Paulo-Brazil (2020/2021), and Nurse in the Emergency Department of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo-Brazil.

Croatia

Valentina Jezl - Nursing

Valentina is an advanced nurse practitioner at the Institute for Intensive Cardiac Care, Arrhythmia and Transplantation Cardiology of the University Hospital Centre Zagreb for 3 and a half year. She obtained my Bachelor's degree in Nursing at University of Applied Health Sciences in Zagreb in 2014 and Master degree at University of Zagreb, School of Medicine in September 2019. In 2018 she has become the secretary of the Croatian Association of Cardiac Nurses, so she is actively involved in all national activity of the association.

Denmark

Maria Kjøller Pedersen - Allied profession

Her clinical background is within cardiovascular nursing. In 2018 she successfully defended her Ph.D.-thesis entitled ‘Mechanisms of social inequality in cardiac rehabilitation attendance among patients with acute coronary syndrome: A Mixed Methods study’ and was awarded the Ph.D.-degree in epidemiology and Public Health by the University of Copenhagen. Currently she is affiliated with University College Copenhagen. From 2019 to 2022 she is being appointed as a project leader of a complex intervention testing the effect of peer-mentoring among older, female vulnerable patients with myocardial infarction.

Egypt

Mohamed El-Khatib - Nursing

Khatib is an RN in Egypt, currently works for Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation as the Nursing Education Manager. He is as certified professional trainer from Ain Shams University in Cairo. In the clinical side, he has worked in post-operative ICU after major heart surgeries in adult and pediatric settings (LVAD, ASO) and he holds the position of Head Nurse at the Cardiac Care Unit (CCU).

Hady Atef - Allied profession

Hady is a lecturer of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation in the Department of Physical Therapy for Internal Medicine at Cairo University. His PhD was on the role of cardiac rehabilitation in the management of selected sleep disorders that occur after CABG surgery. Part of that research was funded by the ESC as a short-term training grant for nursing in the UK. He looks forward to a fruitful collaboration with ACNAP and to making the voices of Egyptian nurses and allied professionals heard as part of a better future for cardiovascular nursing in Egypt.

Finland

Jaana Kouvalainen - Nursing

Jaana is a CCU nurse from Helsinki University Hospital. She in the final stage of completing a master’s degree in Preventive Health Sciences with University of Eastern Finland. She is also the editor-in-chief of the industry magazine for the Finnish Association of Cardiovascular Nursing. Titled Kardioskooppi, it is a quarterly publication which carries regular social media updates and is promoted on Instagram and Facebook. Being a journalist in the cardiac field has given her a comprehensive understanding about the needs of Finnish cardiac patients and the quality of care they receive.

Germany

Daniel Engel - Allied profession

Daniel is a nurse and health scientiest (MSc.) and has been actively engaged in the implementation of European and national public health research projects since 2015 at the Research and Transfer Centre HAW Hamburg (FTZ-ALS) and University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg. He graduated from University Furtwangen/University of Maastricht and the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. He received BSc and MSc degrees in health sciences/European public health. Daniel has been active in the research projects field since 2015 for several national and H2020 EC funded projects (MMAF, EARTHS, AFRINET). At present, he is being appointed as a project manager and scientiest of the H2020 Research Project "DIGITAL, RISK-BASED SCREENING FOR ATRIAL FIBRILLATION IN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY (AFFECT-EU)".

Greece

Panagiota Manthou - Nursing

Panagiota is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Nursing at National Kapodistrian University of Athens, as well as a registered nurse at Thoracic Diseases General Hospital Sotiria in Athens. She belongs to the cardiology sector of the Hellenic Regulatory Board of Nurses, is an editorial board member of a cardiology journal, as well as a Young National Ambassador of the Association for Acute CardioVascular Care (ACVC).

India

Deepti N Wadhwa - Allied profession

Deepti is an assistant professor at M.V.P’S College of Physiotherapy specialised in community physiotherapy, Nashik since four years. She is also sub-coordinator of the India Association of Physiotherapists women cell Nashik District since July 2018, and Maharashtra Chairperson for Health and Wellness - All Ladies League.

Ireland

Edel Cronin - Nursing

Edel is currently working in University Hospital Waterford, Ireland as a clinical nurse specialist in acute coronary syndrome. She is a registered advanced nurse practitioner and nurse prescriber with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). She was a winner of 'Excellence in Cardiovascular Care' at the EuroHeartCare congress in Sweden in 2017. She is a committee member and joint treasurer of the Irish Nurses Cardiovascular Association in Ireland. She has a keen interest in research with various publications.

Italy

Alessia Martina Trenta - Nursing 

Alessia is a nurse with extensive experience in cardiovascular disease and works in the nurse-led heart failure clinic at the Cardiology Center Monzino IRCCS in Milan. She is a PhD student in Nursing Sciences and Public Health at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and is also affiliated with the University of Milan-Bicocca. Both her clinical work and research are focused on people with heart failure and patients with LVAD, especially on self-care. She strongly believes in teamwork, and is looking forward to promoting cooperation between the Italian network of cardiovascular nurses and allied professionals and ACNAP YoCo.

Alessia Zanni - Allied profession

Alessia is a Cardiovascular Technician-Technologist who works in Department of Cardiology of “G. da Saliceto” Hospital in Piacenza from 2013. She got a bachelor’s degree in “Tecniche di Fisiopatologia Cardiocircolatoria e Perfusione Cardiovascolare” in 2012 and Master Degree in 2020, now she is attending first level master. She believes that cardiology patient needs a multidisciplinary team. She would like to create new synergies with the scientific societies present in Italy, in some of which she is an active member. Her areas of interest are implantable devices, remote monitoring, patient satisfaction, heart failure and echocardiography. 

Lebanon

Angela Massouh - Nursing

Angela is an assistant professor and cardiology clinical nurse specialist. She earned her PhD in 2017 from the University of Colorado, Denver. She currently teaches Adult and Critical Care courses for graduate and undergraduate students. Her clinical and research interests are in heart failure symptom science and chronic disease management. In addition to her academic and research involvement, Angela also runs the Heart Failure Multidisciplinary Disease Management Clinic and sees patients on a weekly basis.

She is heavily involved in Capacity Building Programs For Nurses in Lebanon and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. She is a board member of the HFA Young Committee at the ESC as well as an active member in many national, regional, and international cardiac and nursing organisations.

Luxembourg

Ana Carolina Sauer Liberato - Nursing

Ana is currently an Affiliated faculty at the University of Washington - US. She is working in projects with an international partnership between Brazil, US, and Europe. She graduated from a Ph.D. in Nursing with an emphasis in statistics from the University of Washington, Seattle, US. Her Ph.D. dissertation focused on understanding the mechanism by which an intervention for patients with ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) influenced physical and psychological health outcomes. For her master’s in health science at the School of Nursing, UNICAMP, Brazil, she focused her studies on evaluating the psychometric properties of a patient satisfaction questionnaire in hypertensive patients. She earned a bachelor and licentiate degree in nursing at the School of Nursing, UNICAMP, Brazil.
Her areas of interest are ICD, implantable devices, patient satisfaction, psychometrics, structural equation modeling, and statistics.

The Netherlands

Yvonne Koop - Allied profession

As a PhD candidate, Yvonne studies the cardiac health of women with breast cancer who are receiving cardiotoxic therapy. While doing her PhD, she and her supervisors started a multidisciplinary cardio-oncology outpatient clinic and a clinician task force to improve cardiac care for cancer patients. As a sub-investigator, she is also working on an international study to improve treatment for STEMI patients. She graduated as a clinical health scientist from Utrecht University in 2017 and has been a member of the European Academy of Nursing Science (EANS) since she started her PhD studies in the Departments of Cardiology and Health Sciences at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

Norway

Gunhild Brørs - Nursing

Gunhild, a registered nurse with a MSc, is a PhD student working as a quality adviser in the Department of Heart Disease at St. Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway. As an active member for several years on the board of the Norwegian National Society of Cardiovascular Nurses, she has built a large network of cardiovascular nursing contacts in her homeland.

Poland

Alicja Wiśnicka - Nursing

Alicja is a nurse and PhD student. She works in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the 4th Military Hospital in Wroclaw. Currently in the process of postgraduate studies in clinical sexology, her doctoral dissertation focuses on the influence of sociodemographic and clinical factors on sexual dysfunctions of patients with heart failure and their quality of life. Alicja has been conducting research on sexual disorders in cardiovascular diseases for the past three years.

Portugal

Ana Filipa Gomes - Nursing

Ana is a nurse specialist in public health and community nursing, who works in the Cardiology Department and Coronary Intensive Care Unit at Centro Hospitalar do Baixo Vouga, EPE in Aveiro, Portugal. She is also a PhD Nursing student at Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Porto, and she holds two masters  degrees: one in Educational Sciences and another in Management and Health Economics. Recently she participated in the HOPE Exchange Program in Växjö - Sweden. Her main research interests are nursing, person-centered care, public health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), cardiovascular nursing, and health promotion.

Slovenia

Žiga Tomšič - Nursing

Žiga is working as a RN in a cardiac ICU unit, and working mostly with heart failure patients. His interests consist of LVADs, heart transplantation and other cardiac nursing related areas. 

Spain

Elena Marques-Sule - Allied profession

Elena is an assistant professor in the Department of Physiotherapy of the University of Valencia in Spain. She has a PhD in physical therapy, is a board member of ACNAP, of the Heart Institute of Valencia, and of the Spanish Heart Foundation. She is specialised in cardiac rehabilitation, exercise and physical activity in ischemic heart disease, heart failure and heart transplantation.

Sudan 

Abdellateef Mohammed Abdellrahim - Nursing

Abdellateef Mohammed works in an adult Cardiology Center in Sudan (Shaab Teatching Hospital) as electrophysiology (EP) and interventional cardiology nurse.

Sweden

Petronella Torild - Nursing

Petronella works at Sahlgrenska University Hospital as a nurse and instructor in interventional cardiology. Her philosophy is that well-educated nurses as well as technical skills are important for both great teamwork and patient safety. Therefore she works to inspire and improve knowledge for nurses in the cath-lab.

Tunisia

Mleyhi Sobhi - Allied profession (physician) 

Mleyhi is a Cardiovascular surgeon in La Rabta Teaching Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the University of Tunis El Manar, Faculty of medicine of Tunis in Tunisia.

Ukraine

Kateryna Viligorska - Allied profession (physician)

Kateryna, who has a MSc and is an MD, works as an internist at the Regional Municipal Institution Emergency Hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. In June 2014, she was a session winner at the International Student Congress of (bio)Medical Sciences in Groningen in the Netherlands. While studying for her master’s degree, she was chosen for a practice fellowship in experimental cardiology where she investigated molecular mechanisms of cardiac fibrosis in heart failure. She is now incorporating practical experience from clinical work into individual research studies dealing with biomarkers for myocardial hypoxia, pathophysiological mechanisms of tissue inflammation, fibrosis in atrial fibrillation, and acute coronary syndrome. She believes that collaboration among healthcare professionals results in the best care and treatment for patients.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Maggie Simpson - Nursing

Maggie is a senior nurse specialist in the Scottish Adult Congenital Cardiac Service at Golden Jubilee National Hospital near Glasgow and is lead clinician of the Scottish Obstetric Cardiology Network. She works proactively to improve and develop services that are sustainable and meet the needs of users. She is enthusiastic about enhancing opportunities for education and networking for nurses and allied health professionals. She is working on her master’s in health research.

Uzbekistan

Bekzod Karimov - Allied profession (physician)

Bekzod Karimov is a research fellow of the Republican Specialized Scientific Practical Medical Center of Therapy and Medical Rehabilitation and conducts research in chronic coronary artery disease and cardiovascular prevention. He is also a part-time emergency doctor at the Emergency Medical Center.