Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference focuses on practice-ready AI

Nurse leaders, data scientists and informaticists from across the country gathered in Minneapolis for the 2026 Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference in June. Attendees explored how nurses can lead the implementation, governance and impact of artificial intelligence (AI). 

Leyla Warsame, MD, associate chief medical information officer at M Health Fairview, delivered the keynote Making AI Governance Work: Operational Lessons from a Health System. She outlined how governance functions as a system of repeated decisions in everyday work, rather than committee work or policy documents, and shared use cases from implementing AI in practice.

“The goal is not perfect governance. The goal is governance that gets more useful, more repeatable, more trustworthy every time you use it. AI governance is not your finish line. It is your organizational capability,” said Warsame. 

Shakira Henderson, PhD, DNP, MPH, EMBA, IBCLC, RNC-NIC, dean of University of Florida School of Nursing, and Ryannon Frederick, MS, RN, CENP, FAAN, chief nursing officer at Mayo Clinic, spoke on the panel Executive Call for Action. University of Minnesota School of Nursing Dean Connie White Delaney, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FNAP, moderated the discussion on how nurse leaders can bring AI to practice at enterprise level.  

Martha Sylvia, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN, president of ForestVue Healthcare Solutions and associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, and Jennifer Houlihan, MSP, vice president, Enterprise Population Health, Advocate Health, led the session Unique/Innovative Use of Data. Sylvia presented Leading Population Health: Core Competencies for Nursing Leadership in Data-Driven Care, highlighting core competencies nursing leaders should harness to provide population health and value-based care. Houlihan presented Beyond the Bedside: Leveraging Non-Traditional Data and Predictive Analytics to Advance Health Access, discussing how non-traditional data can be integrated into the EHR to identify risk and close care gaps.

Heidi Roop, PhD, director of Climate Adaptation Partnership at the University of Minnesota, presented Changing Technology Meets a Changing Planet – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Big Data Impacts & Opportunities. She provided an overview of the intersection of AI and climate science, highlighting Minnesota-led, interdisciplinary advances in this area. 

Roop, Houlihan and Sylvia also spoke on the panel SDOH and the Environment, moderated by Rebecca Freeman, PhD, RN, FAAN, vice president of health informatics at The University of Vermont Health Network. From their perspective as leaders, they discussed how nursing can implement big data to improve health at the community, population and planetary levels. 

The Nursing Knowledge Big Data Science Initiative work groups reported on major achievements and discussed top priorities for the coming year.

Learn more about the Nursing Knowledge: Big Data Science Conference.