Central Park Jogger, Trisha Meili, to speak in Somerset

Trisha Meili, better known as the Central Park Jogger, will talk about the special role that nursing care played in her recovery when she delivers the keynote speech at the 11th Annual Atlantic Neuroscience Institute Nursing Symposium on Thursday, September 23, 2010.

Meili will offer "A Brain Injury Survivor's Perspective on Healing to Wholeness," at the symposium, recounting the inspirational story of her recovery after the devastating attack that garnered national attention in 1989, when she was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted in New York's Central Park. Since her recovery, the Paramus, NJ, native has become an ambassador of healing, speaking to businesses, universities, brain injury associations, sexual assault centers and hospitals, offering lessons on how to manage through unpredictable personal, professional, economic or spiritual change.

The symposium is designed to provide nurses with continuing education in the field of neuroscience and promote best practices. The symposium lectures cover topics relating to the management of disease processes and understanding the brain injury recovery process. Offered primarily for those in the nursing and rehabilitative fields, the event will also serve as 5.5 contact hours of continuing education for those professionals.

Presentations on various neuroscience-related subjects also will be offered by Atlantic Health faculty, including Roger D. Kurlan, MD, medical director, Movement Disorders Program at the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute, and Carl S. Goldstein, MD, division chief, nephrology, and director, dialysis services, Overlook Hospital. Presentations also will be given by visiting faculty, Andrew Lassman, MD, assistant member, department of neurology, training program director, neuro-oncology fellowship, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Dai Wai Olson, PhD, RN, assistant professor of medicine, department of neurology, Level 4 Staff Nurse, Neuroscience Critical Care Unit, Duke University.

For more information, or to register, call 973-971-8960, or visit: www.regonline.com/AtlanticNeuroNursing2010.

For more information on the Atlantic Neuroscience Institute, please visit: http://www.atlantichealth.org/Neuroscience/