Mary Christoffersen, DPN, RN, and Joubin Bavarian, RN, selected as two of 30 Fellows nationally.
Bridgeport, CT (May 7, 2025) – The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has announced that Mary Christoffersen, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer and Joubin Bavarian, RN, vice president, Operations & Nursing both of Bridgeport Hospital have been selected among ten teams from health systems around the country to participate in the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship Program (JJNIF).
JJNIF, powered by Penn Nursing and the Wharton School is a ground-breaking, one-year, team-based nursing fellowship. The fellowship is unique in that two nurse leaders – one CNO or nurse executive and one other senior nurse leader from the same organization – participate and work together to address a real-world challenge their health system is facing using human-centered design and business and leadership principals specific to innovation. The fellows come from geographically diverse areas across the US. They come from large and small health systems as well as stand-alone hospitals and public health systems in urban and rural locations.
The fellowship will immerse participants in the innovation process by focusing on human-centered design and design thinking methodologies and will teach fellows how to apply it to their specific challenge area. The innovation curriculum provided by Penn Nursing will be paired with business acumen, change management and strategic leadership skills development through Wharton Executive Education. At the conclusion of the fellowship, fellows will pitch their innovative solutions with the goal of bringing that solution back to their healthcare system to implement.
During the fellowship, participants will work on a healthcare problem specific to their health system. While two-person executive leadership teams from each health system are the selected fellows, fellows may invite extended team members from their health system who can help them identify the problem and develop their solutions to attend virtual sessions as well. The program will conclude with a final in-person pitch session where fellows will describe the problem they are addressing and their recommended solution.
Bridgeport Hospital, part of Yale New Haven Health, is a non-profit 501-bed acute care hospital with two campuses (plus 42 beds licensed to Yale New Haven Children's Hospital). Its Bridgeport and Milford Campuses serve patients from across the region. The hospital admits more than 23,000 patients and provides nearly 350,000 outpatient treatments annually. The Connecticut Burn Center at Bridgeport Hospital is the only burn center in the state and one of only 64 verified burn centers in the United States. Bridgeport Hospital is committed to providing safe, compassionate and cost efficient care to its patients and the community. www.bridgeporthospital.org
