Donna Cardillo Speaker Biography
Elevating Nurses to Live and Work at Their Highest Potential, Original “Dear Donna” at Nurse.com, Author, and Motivational Speaker
Donna Cardillo, MA, RN, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional), FAAN (Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing) is The Inspiration Nurse. She is a powerhouse of energy, wisdom, humor, and solid content and has been referred to as a positive force of nature who lights a path for others to follow.
Dear Donna Columnist
Donna travels the world helping individuals to be happy in their lives and careers and to reach their full potential. She does that as a keynote speaker, retreat and seminar leader, columnist, author, and cut-up. Her accomplished career combines over 35 years of clinical, managerial, and business experience, not to mention her stint as a professional singer! Donna’s clinical experience includes emergency and psychiatric nursing. She holds a diploma in nursing, a BS in Health Care Management, and an MA in Corporate and Public Communication. She is the original ‘Dear Donna’ columnist at Nurse.com.
Honors and Awards
Donna has twice been named Business Woman of the Year in New Jersey and has also received the coveted Athena Award, an international leadership award for women. Donna was designated a Diva in Nursing by the Institute for Nursing in NJ for outstanding achievements and excellence in practice. She has also been named one of 50 Best Women in Business by NJBIZ. Donna appears regularly on television and radio, is frequently quoted in newspapers and magazines and has published numerous articles. Donna has appeared on The Today Show, The Dr. OZ Show and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times on several occasions.
Books
Donna is author of the award-winning book Falling Together: How to Find Balance, Joy, and Meaningful Change When Your Life Seems to Be Falling Apart. She is also the author of Your First Year as a Nurse: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional 3rd ed., The ULTIMATE Career Guide for Nurses: Practical Advice for Thriving at Every Stage of Your Career 2nd ed., and A Day Book for Beginning Nurses.
Keynote Speaker
Donna is a founding member and past president of the New Jersey chapters of both the National Speakers Association (NSA) and the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). She holds the coveted Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, the highest earned international recognition for professional speakers. This makes her one of only 10% of all speakers to hold this designation and one of only 25 nurses with this credential. She is one of only 4 nurses in the world to hold both the CSP and FAAN designations.
Donna is a Reiki Master, Certified Forest Therapy Guide, Certified Meditation Teacher, Certified Chair Yoga Instructor, Certified AWA Writing Workshop Facilitator, and Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator. When she is at her home base in Sea Girt, NJ, she serves as a local spokesperson for family caregivers.
Donna Cardillo Speaking Topics
A Nursing Renaissance™: The Dawn of a New Era
Join The Inspiration Nurse for this transformational program where she shares a roadmap for a bright and hopeful future for nursing. Donna will outline the amazing opportunities before us to create a new paradigm that will empower, enlighten, and elevate the profession to new heights. With her customary humor, animated style, and forward vision, Donna will uplift and energize to illuminate a new path for all to follow. Look out, world, here come the Nurses! Attendees will learn: • Strategies for personal and professional recovery, rebirth, and renewal • Mechanisms for honoring the past while leaving behind what no longer serves us • Techniques to become profound change agents • Empowerment strategies that will transform your practice
Nurse Power!™: Harnessing The Power, The Passion, and The Pride of Nursing
This uplifting program is designed to remind nurses of their own greatness and empower them for future success. It’s guaranteed to make nurses feel good and proud of who they are, what they do, and how they contribute to healthcare. Get ready to be pumped up, turned on, and super-charged with Nurse Power! Participants will learn: • What they already have going for them • How nurses have already changed the face of healthcare • How to be a nursing advocate • Techniques for assertive behavior/communication • Strategies for elevating the profession to new heights
Regaining Joy and Balance to Move Forward: How Nurses/Healthcare Staff Can Refresh, Regroup, and Re-energize
Times have been tough and nurses/healthcare professionals are just emerging from one of their greatest challenges ever. Having recently celebrated the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, it’s only fitting that we ask ourselves: What would Florence do? Join Donna as she channels Flo for an inspirational and practical program to lift you up and get you back on track. Participants will learn how to: • Cultivate resilience • Create a mindfulness practice • Restore wellbeing • Empower themselves for future success
Passionate Leadership: Soaring to New Heights
Today’s leaders are challenged like never before. At the same time, they are in a unique position to have a greater impact on the future of their industry. So how can you stay inspired and continue to grow and evolve as a leader when chaos reigns, morale is low and change is a constant? Spend a high-content, high-fun hour (or longer) with The Inspiration Nurse and get primed, pumped-up and supercharged for the coming decade! Participants will learn how to: • Identify and avoid the perils and pitfalls of being an experienced leader • Become stronger by softening yourself • Stay relevant and inspired year after year • Self-management strategies to support your success
The Power of Resilience
Challenge, change, and chaos has become the order of the day in our personal and professional lives. So how can you meet them head on and bounce back better and stronger rather than being overwhelmed? Donna will show you how to foster strategies to respond positively to change, adversity and stress while developing a sense of mastery, confidence, and personal power. Learn to turn challenges that threaten to knock us to the ground into the building blocks we need to become more successful, more joyful, and ultimately, more alive. Attendees will learn to: • Build personal power and confidence • Embrace change • Approach life with a positive perspective • Develop habits to nurture and nourish self
The Power of Transformation
This transformational program confronts the inevitability of change in our lives and careers, understanding why we resist change, strategies to embrace change and stay relevant, and how in the end, change will help us to create a vibrant future for ourselves and our profession. Without change, there is no growth and if you're not growing you're stagnating! Participants will learn: • How to overcome their fear of change • Specific ways to build 'change stamina' • How to maintain inner calm in the midst of outer chaos • Strategies for personal and career transformation • The importance of avoiding obsolescence
Donna Cardillo Books
Falling Together: How to Find Balance, Joy, and Meaningful Change When Your Life Seems to be Falling Apart
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Your 1st Year As a Nurse: Making the Transition from Total Novice to Successful Professional
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The ULTIMATE Career Guide for Nurses: Practical Advice for Thriving at Every Stage of Your Career
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Donna Cardillo Speaker Testimonials
“Thank you for providing us with excellent presentations for Nurses’ week this year. The feedback we received from staff was very positive! Your ability to identify the struggles and challenges we are all facing in healthcare, and share realistic approaches to help us deal with these challenges, was really quite amazing! You have been able to give us clear guidance in navigating our future with many issues, including those of the heart. Thank you for your time, good humor, warmth, and professionalism.”
- | Patient Care Director Behavioral Health, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center
"Thank you, thank you and thank you for the joy you brought to so many in Austin last Friday. I am SO pleased that you joined us for our annual Nursing Symposium and contributed in a significant way to the success that day. Verbal feedback was extremely positive; and the written evaluations certainly confirm that with numerous positive comments like “she is great,” “excellent speaker,” love her,” “great catch,” “inspirational,” “very fun & energetic,” and “thoroughly enjoyed this speaker,” just to cite a few. The planning team and I are just thrilled with how everything went so smoothly. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Texas and that you will join us again in the future."
- | Director, The Center for Nursing Research, SETON Family of Hospitals
“Thank you for a magnificent presentation. Your seminar was just what we needed: engaging, encouraging, and packed full with vital information that was timely and specific. You did all this in a style that was dynamic and of good humor. You immediately built trust and everyone felt your genuine friendship.”
- | Catholic Medical Center
