Jacqueline Massaro

Jacqueline (Jackie) Massaro, MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, CWOCN is honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Maxine E. Elkan Scholarship established by Dr. Diane Mancino.

Jackie earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Saint Anselm College and her Master of Science in Nursing, as a Clinical Nurse Specialist, from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She is a board-certified Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist (ACNS-BC) and a Certified Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurse (CWOCN). She is currently a Ph.D. candidate and predoctoral fellow at the Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, where she is developing a program of research focused on equitable pressure injury prevention in acute care settings.

Becoming a nurse began as Jackie’s childhood dream – she describes an innate pull to take care of people and provide them with comfort and dignity when they were vulnerable or experiencing illness.  Jackie volunteered at a local nursing home during high school and worked as a patient care assistant during college.  She began her nursing career in a small community hospital on a medical unit, and after two years took a job at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH), a large academic medical center, in Boston. This change was motivated by her thirst to learn more and expand her nursing skillset.  After three years on a medical-surgical unit she transitioned to the intensive care unit (ICU) and learned to care for adults with medically complex diagnoses.  She became a preceptor for new ICU nurses, and discovered how much she enjoyed teaching. Jackie has held two nurse educator positions at BWH and served as a clinical instructor for two nursing schools.

With over 16 years of experience in adult critical care, Jackie brings significant clinical expertise to her academic and research pursuits. Her research examines the impact of social determinants of health, comorbid conditions, and skin tone on pressure injury risk. Her goal is to inform nursing practice, particularly assessment and prevention of pressure injuries, by developing equitable, evidence-based approaches to skin assessment and care.

Jackie is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society of Nursing, Alpha Chi Chapter, and she serves on the Research Committee of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel (NPIAP).  She regularly presents at local and national nursing conferences, sharing her work and advocating for equity and excellence in wound care. Her program of research was born out of direct clinical observation: seeing disproportionate pressure injury outcomes in persons with darker skin tones.  It is this patient-centered insight that drives her dedication to eliminating disparities and improving pressure injury outcomes through scholarship and advocacy.

Receiving the Maxine E. Elkan Scholarship is a tremendous honor and an invaluable source of support.  Jackie is deeply grateful to Dr. Mancino for establishing the Maxine Elkan Scholarship and to NEF for recognizing her work and helping to support her goal of becoming a leader in pressure injury prevention and nursing education.