Kristiina Hyrkäs, PhD, LicNSc, MNSc, RN joined Maine Medical Center in November 2005 and serves as the Director of the Center for Nursing Research and Quality Outcomes (CNRQO). She received her academic degrees from the University of Tampere, Finland. Dr. Hyrkas has a broad background in health sciences and nursing, as a researcher and mentor in clinical and university settings in the USA, Canada, UK and Finland. She has conducted numerous quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies across a wide spectrum of clinical, academic, and theoretical domains. In collaboration with nurses and interprofessional teams, her most recent clinical research has focused on fall prevention, the Hospital Elder Life Program, the teaching-learning partnership between nurses and patients, development of the Collaborative Model of Evidence Translation (CoMET©), and the validation of a spiritual care survey for acute hospital patients. In addition to her research activities, she is a member of the MMC/Maine Health Institutional Review Board, an Adjunct Faculty in USM’s School of Nursing, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Maine Medical Center, and a reviewer for several leading nursing journals and professional nursing conferences.