Kathryn Shaffer, EdD, RN, MSN, CNE, CCFP, FNAP is an Associate Professor at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia and a Co-Founder in Fifth Window, a software development company focused on nurses well-being. Dr. Shaffer is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional providing support and education to not only health care professionals, but all of those in a care giver/taker role. She is co-creator of N2N a peer run nurse support group for nurses on the front-line.

A leader in collaborative efforts between nursing and other health care professions, Dr. Shaffer holds a secondary appointment in Jefferson’s College of Population Health and has worked with its faculty, as well as Jefferson’s School of Business, to provide transdisciplinary experiential learning opportunities for interprofessional health care students, serving some of Philadelphia's most vulnerable populations. Her innovative strategies have been presented at national conferences.

She developed and teaches a “course within a course’ on innovation for both nursing and business management students at Jefferson, who learn design thinking and a business model canvas. Students examine public health issues in Philadelphia and develop innovation solutions to increase access or decrease social determinants of health. They also work to disseminate the results of their work to other students and nurses.

Dr. Shaffer was instrumental in the creation of Jefferson’s student-run wellness center at Philadelphia’s Broad Street Ministry. The student run wellness center started out as a collaborative effort between College of Pharmacy and Nursing to provide frontline contact with health care professional students and the homeless population served by Broad Street Ministry.

Dr. Shaffer served on the college’s undergraduate curriculum committee that redesigned the BSN curriculum in 13 months. The curriculum framework, Promoting Health and Quality of Life Along the Care Continuum, serves as a national model for a new direction in nursing education. She also served as curriculum implementation committee chair, responsible for transforming clinical education and creating learning environments to facilitate student understanding and enhance their skill set in promoting and maintaining population health.

One of her current focus areas is in further developing those innovative educational strategies and researching their impact on healthcare providers and population health. Her clinical work in the community has led to a workforce development grant, focusing on supporting Emergency Department staff while decreasing the stigma of care for those affected by the opioid crisis through trauma awareness. She has worked tirelessly over the last year ensuring self-care, and resiliency building is part of the curriculum at Jefferson College of Nursing programs.

Dr. Shaffer received her EdD from the University of Delaware, her master’s degree in education from Mansfield University focusing on Nursing Education, and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University, College of Nursing.