James K. Stoller, M.D., MS, (ODA),
Chairman, Education Institute

Dr. Stoller is Chairman of the Education Institute at Cleveland Clinic. He holds the Jean Wall Bennett Professorship of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the Samson Global Leadership Academy Endowed Chair. He also is a pulmonary/critical care physician in Cleveland Clinic’s Respiratory Institute.
 
In 1979, Dr. Stoller earned a medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine and later completed an internship and residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. He then completed several fellowships in pulmonary medicine, clinical epidemiology and respiratory intensive care at Yale, the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital before joining Cleveland Clinic in 1986.
 
Throughout his career at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Stoller has served as Vice Chairman of the Division of Medicine, Associate Chief of Staff, and Executive Director of Leadership Development.
 
His clinical research has focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and on strategies of care delivery, especially respiratory therapy. He has authored/edited 20 books, over 306 peer-reviewed reports, 88 chapters and more than 125 abstracts, and serves as a reviewer and contributor to a number of national and international publications.
 
Over the years, Dr. Stoller has been invited to speak extensively and has been honored with numerous awards, including being named the 27th Egan Lecturer by the American Association for Respiratory Care, receiving the Forrest M. Bird Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award from the American Respiratory Care Foundation, and the Cleveland Clinic “Master Educator” award.. He has delivered endowed lectureships at Pennsylvania State University and Ohio University, and was acclaimed as the Best Morning Report Teaching Attending by Cleveland Clinic’s Division of Medicine.
 
In 2001, Dr. Stoller earned a Master of Science in Organizational Development and Analysis from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). His organizational development activities have included co-directing the “Leading in Healthcare” course for Cleveland Clinic faculty, and his research focuses on the impact and outcomes of leadership development training in healthcare. 
 
He currently also serves as a Professor of Organizational Behavior at CWRU’s Weatherhead School of Management and as an Honorary Visiting Professor, Cass School of Business, City, University of London (UK).
 
Dr. Stoller is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Chest Physicians and American Association for Respiratory Care.

Eduardo Mireles-Cabodevila, M.D., CHSE
Medical Director

Dr. Mireles-Cabodevila is the Medical Director for the Simulation and Advanced Skills Center at the Cleveland Clinic.  He is also a board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.

In 1998, Dr Mireles earned his medical degree from Anahuac University school of medicine, and he completed his residency at Hospital Espanol de Mexico and the Maryland General Hospital. He then completed his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. His clinical research focuses on mechanical ventilation, acute respiratory failure, critical illness and neuromuscular diseases affecting the respiratory system. He has authored several peered review articles, book chapters and a book.

Dr. Mireles currently serves as the Director of the Critical Care Medicine fellowship at the Respiratory Institute of the Cleveland Clinic. Along with the Critical Care Simulation team, he has developed several simulation courses and created simulation devices to enhance the training of health care providers. He has a special interest in education in critical care, and in specific on the use of simulation to enhance and accelerate learning. As Director of the Simulation and Advanced Skills Center he works across the enterprise to facilitate access and processes to provide the best training and education to our caregivers.

Joan Kavanagh, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN
Associate Chief Nursing Officer

Joan M. Kavanagh, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN is the Associate Chief Nursing Officer for Clinical Education and Professional Development in the Nursing Institute (NI) at the Cleveland Clinic (CC), where she facilitates the enterprise-wide work of Nurse Professional Development Specialists, and oversees all American Heart Association classes for the enterprise. Joan is a member of the editorial board for the award winning Nursing Institute publication, Notable Nursing. She is a member of the American College of Health Care Executives, the Association of Nurse Executives, and the National League for Nursing, the Ohio League for Nursing, and Sigma Theta Tau.  She holds a Masters of Nursing Science with a specialty in education from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland Ohio and is currently a doctoral candidate in the PhD in nursing education program at NOVA Southeastern University. In addition, she received a BSN with distinction from the Catholic University of America and a diploma with distinction from the Helene Fuld school of Nursing in Camden New Jersey.

Before joining the Clinic in 2005, Ms. Kavanagh held diabetes research and clinical positions at University Hospitals of Cleveland and undergraduate and graduate faculty positions at Ursuline College, and the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at CWRU.

Ms. Kavanagh is responsible for the creation and development of CC’s state-of-the-art nursing skills and simulation lab designed to replicate the practice settings of the intensive care, operating room, and medical-surgical unit. The lab features advanced human patient simulators (HPS) incorporating the full trajectory of fidelity. She also serves as the CC liaison for school of nursing programs in Northeast Ohio and has served as the chief operating officer for the Deans’ Roundtable (DRT), a consortium of deans, directors, and educators from service and academia working together to address the nursing and nursing faculty shortage and the preparation-to-practice gap of new graduate registered nurses. 

Most recently, Kavanagh launched Cleveland Clinic's inaugural simulation and competency based New Graduate Registered Nurse (NGRN) residency program and led the work to obtain the National League for Nursing Center of Excellence Award in 2017, making Cleveland Clinic one of only four healthcare institutions in the United States with this unique distinction.

Leslie Simko, MS, RN, CHSE
Senior Director, Nursing Education, Simulation/AHA and Administrator, Education Institute, Simulation and Advanced Skills Center, Cleveland Clinic Health System

 
Contact Information
Cleveland Clinic
Education Institute
Office of Clinical Education and Professional Development
9500 Euclid Avenue / HSB 133
Cleveland, OH  44195
p. 216.445.5601
e. simkol@ccf.org
 
 
Leslie Simko, MS, BSN, RN, CHSE, is Senior Director over Clinical Education and Professional Development for Simulation and the AHA Training Center, and Administrator for Cleveland Clinic’s Education Institute’s Simulation and Advanced Skills Center. With more than 30 years of experience in the nursing profession and extensive expertise in critical care nursing, Simko understands the complexities of today’s health care environment and education platform.
 
As an advocate for the use of simulation in education across disciplines, Simko collaborates internationally with Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi to train and educate caregivers on human-patient simulation.  In 2011, Simko was awarded a National Council of State Boards of Nursing Center for Regulatory Excellence grant to advance the science of nursing regulation using simulation. She has received several professional awards and recognitions throughout her career and is a member of a selection of prominent industry associations, including the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, Society for Simulation in Healthcare, National League for Nursing and International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning.  Simko is published in both Clinical Simulation in Nursing and Simulation in Healthcare peer reviewed journals.  She has presented for International meetings and conferences in her specialty of simulation.
 
Simko is responsible for the ongoing development of Cleveland Clinic’s clinical simulation program, including the planning, facilitating and evaluating of clinical simulation outcomes for the health system and the standardization of quality care by integrating simulation into multidisciplinary team training, nursing orientation and more. Through her leadership, the Cleveland Clinic has applied for and received accreditations through the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, American College of Surgeons, and has met the requirements for approval as an endorsed program of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Simulation Education Network.  She mentors and assists her colleagues to refine and build professional practice while improving overall patient outcomes.