Nursing Leader in Frontline Global Disaster Response to Address National Faculty Meeting at 2026 NLN Education Summit

Nursing Leader in Frontline Global Disaster Response to Address National Faculty Meeting at 2026 NLN Education Summit

In-depth Look at How Nurses Navigate Mass Casualty Incidents Amid the Complex Landscape of Disasters

Washington, DC — Senior emergency and disaster nursing leader, Jamla Rizek, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, NHDP-BC, NRP, FAAN, FAEN, will headline the 2026 National Faculty Meeting on Friday, September 25, at the 2026 NLN Education Summit when she presents Preparing Nurses for the Frontline: A Dialogue on Disaster Preparedness and Response. The Summit, which will be held in Washington, DC, and hosted by the National League for Nursing, will explore Beyond the Storm: Reshaping Resilience and Recovery.

Dr. Rizek will provide an in-depth look at how nurses navigate mass casualty incidents amid the complex landscape of disasters. Her talk is grounded in real-world scenarios she has encountered in her more than two decades of frontline experience across emergency care, prehospital services, humanitarian response, and global disaster operations.

With her guidance, participants will explore the essential phases of disaster response and recovery, gaining insight into the critical decision-making and coordination required in disaster settings. The presentation will highlight the diverse and indispensable roles nurses play—from rapid assessment to lifesaving intervention for affected communities. Dr. Rizek will emphasize how faculty may prepare students for clinical readiness, interprofessional collaboration and compassionate care, offering a comprehensive understanding of how nurses contribute to resilience and effective disaster management.

Devoted to public health and service, Dr. Rizek has spent her career in emergency and disaster response operations. She was an active-duty officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she held multiple senior leadership and advisory roles, including as executive assistant to the deputy surgeon general and in national preparedness and deployment readiness positions. Dr. Rizek has deployed extensively as part of Tier One public health response teams, supporting domestic and international emergency operations, infectious disease responses, and humanitarian missions. Her leadership and service have been recognized with numerous national awards, including Nurse Responder of the Year and the Surgeon General’s Humanitarian Service and Global Health Award.

In addition to her operational work, Dr. Rizek is a respected educator, editor and scholar in disaster and emergency nursing. She serves as the disaster nursing section editor for the Journal of Emergency Nursing and as a deputy editor for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Her scholarly interests focus on disaster preparedness, humanitarian health, pediatric trauma in conflict settings, responder mental health, and health systems resilience. Dr. Rizek holds dual board certifications in Emergency Nursing and Pediatric Emergency Nursing, as well as being a nationally registered paramedic, and is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN) and the Academy of Emergency Nursing (FAEN).

“Dr. Rizek doesn’t just ‘talk the talk,’ she’s ‘walked the walk.’ We anticipate with great enthusiasm hearing about her experiences in nursing on the frontlines of disaster and emergency response and how these have informed her perspective on best practices for nursing education and clinical practice,” said NLN Chair Yolanda VanRiel, PhD, RN, MEDSURG-BC, OCN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, chair of the Department of Nursing, North Carolina Central University and patient placement coordinator at First Health of the Carolinas-Moore Regional Hospital.

NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “We are so privileged to have Dr. Rizek join us at this year’s NLN Education Summit to generously share her hard-won wisdom from experience and reflection. Our nursing education community will gain valuable insight and inspiration from this world-renowned nurse leader, scholar, teacher and clinician.”

For more information about the 2026 NLN Education Summit or to register to attend, visit NLN.org.

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