Upstate is, and always has been, part of my professional integrity. I hold strong memories of that formative time which became the basic platform of my practice and my career.”

– Fay Whitney, PhD, RN, FAAN

2026 WHITNEY LECTURESHIP SERIES

A 3-Day Series of Wellness + Community Events for Healthcare Workers

October 7–9, 2026 | Syracuse, NY

Healthcare workers spend their days caring for others. This three-day series creates space to pause, reflect, connect, and consider how we can build stronger communities of care for ourselves and one another.

Presented by the Upstate Nursing Alumni Association in partnership with Don’t Clock Out, the 2026 Whitney Lectureship Series will explore moral distress, healthcare worker wellbeing, community, and the realities of working within a complex healthcare system.

With gratitude to our sponsors:

Wednesday, October 7

Moral Distress Lecture by Don’t Clock Out - 2 sessions available

12–1 p.m. | Community Hospital at Upstate, Room CC124 | Hybrid

5–6 p.m. | Upstate University Hospital – Downtown, East Tower, Room 12405 A/B | Hybrid

1 nursing CE credit offered

Join Don’t Clock Out for a conversation about moral distress, its effects on healthcare workers, and the challenges of providing care within complex healthcare systems.

This event is free and open to anyone in the community who is interested. Virtual attendees are welcome.

Thursday, October 8

The 2026 Whitney Lectureship Keystone Event: Don’t Clock Out: A Short Film

4:30 - 5:30 pm | Weiskotten Hall Lobby | In-Person

5:30 –8:00 p.m. | Weiskotten Hall Alumni Auditorium | Hybrid

1.5 nursing CE credits offered

The 2026 Whitney Lectureship Series comes together for an evening of remembrance, storytelling, and conversation centered on the experiences of healthcare workers.

The evening starts with a reception to honor participants and to enjoy the company of community.

The event will then feature a vigil to honor the collective grief of healthcare workers, a screening of Don’t Clock Out: A Short Film, a panel discussion featuring healthcare professionals and advocates, and an audience Q&A.

Bear witness to the raw and honest stories of three nurses—Dejah, Camelia, and Sarah—as they peel back the layers of a broken healthcare system and explore how we can begin paving the way for something better.

This event is free and open to anyone in the community who is interested. Virtual attendees are welcome.

Friday, October 9

“Creating Communities of Care” - A Wellness Workshop

10:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. | New Academic Building, Room 4414A | In person

What do you want to leave behind?

What do you want to embody moving forward?

This workshop invites participants to slow down, reconnect, and turn inward through somatic and mindfulness exercises and creative group activities that help us access the parts of ourselves we may have been overlooking.

Together, we will create space for reflection, connection, and imagining what it can look like to build communities where healthcare workers are cared for, too. Drop in or stay for the duration.

This event is in-person and for Upstate Employees and Students Only.

Meet Our Panelists:

Elizabeth Jorolemon (CREDENTIALS) earned an AAS in nursing from Cayuga Community College in 2017, a BS in nursing from Roberts Wesleyan College in 2019 and an MS in Nursing, Family Nurse Practitioner from Le Moyne College in 2023. She has worked as a registered nurse in the medical/surgical specialty since 2017 and was on the front lines during the COVID 19 pandemic. She is presently a clinical leader in the float pool at Upstate's Community Hospital campus and also a primary care family nurse practitioner in Auburn, NY.

Nicholas Netti - CREDENTIALS Graduated in 2018 from Upstate Medical University's College of Nursing with a Bachelors in the Science of Nursing. He spent seven years on a subacute rehabilitation floor where he predominantly cared for the geriatric population. This was briefly interrupted in the winter of 2020 when the unit was redesignated as a COVID unit taking care of postacute patients. He was able to take on different leadership positions as a Clinical Leader, and eventually a Clinical Training Specialist. He has since transitioned to being a nurse on the Wound and Ostomy Team.

Dr. Nathalie Santos, DPM is a physician-trained healthcare professional and Director of Advocacy at Don’t Clock Out. Her work centers on healthcare worker wellbeing, burnout, mental health, and building more sustainable cultures of care.

While completing her residency training in the Northeast during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Santos witnessed firsthand how deeply the wellbeing of healthcare workers is connected to the quality and sustainability of the care they can provide. That experience became a catalyst for her advocacy work and her commitment to helping healthcare workers move beyond simply surviving the demands of the profession.

She is particularly passionate about holistic self-care, community building, and the power of storytelling to create connection, reduce isolation, and remind healthcare workers that they are people before they are providers.

Sarah Warren, BSN RN (she/her) is a registered nurse, writer & activist who uses storytelling across mediums to help humanize care. I am also the director and co-founder of 501c3 non profit Don't Clock Out, a community organization dedicated to supporting healthcare workers through the impacts of moral distress.

We have facilitated over 200 sessions providing support to over 3000 care workers nationwide. It is profound to be able to hold space for healthcare workers and their stories, disrupting the notion that we have to navigate what we go through alone.

Adrienne Borschuk, PhD, HEC-C, is an Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate. She graduated with her PhD in child clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, attended residency at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Kennedy Krieger Institute, and completed fellowship at Cincinnati Children's. Dr. Borschuk practiced as a clinical psychologist specializing in pediatrics and palliative care before joining the Center for Bioethics and Humanities in 2025. Among other academic activities, Dr. Borschuk co-directs the Ethics Consultation Service and is the director of the Moral Distress Relief Program at SUNY Upstate.

Caitlin M. Nye PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CHSE, CNE (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Upstate College of Nursing. This is her sixth year as a full-time faculty member. Caitlin has been at Upstate since 2012, where she worked as an emergency department registered nurse and the Nurse Residency Program Coordinator before joining the College. Caitlin's research focuses on LGBTQ+ inclusivity in nursing education, the use of simulation for faculty development and training, and inclusive education. She is grateful for the opportunity to facilitate critical conversations about healthcare moral distress and wellbeing at Upstate and beyond.

About Don't Clock Out

Don’t Clock Out is a community organization offering free confidential peer support groups led by healthcare workers. We engage in public advocacy through ethical storytelling campaigns and moral distress education. We operate as a safety net solution to help prevent suicide by building networks of care.

Our organization operates within the understanding that capitalism does not tolerate solutions that allow our workforce to pause and reflect on our collective exploitation. Through building community and solidarity amongst healthcare workers, we believe we can begin to challenge the long standing culture of harm in healthcare.

Caring for patients begins with caring for ourselves and each other.

Learn more by clicking here.

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