Pamela Z. Cacchione, PhD, CRNP is the Ralston House Term Chair in Gerontological Nursing and a Professor of Geropsychiatric Nursing at Penn Nursing. Dr. Cacchione is a nurse innovator, scientist, and leader in gerontological nursing. She is the Co-lead of the Aging Core of the Penn AITech P30.
She is the recipient of a Penn Center for Healthcare Innovation Nursing Fellowship, and was previously a Health and Aging Policy Fellow working as a Senior Advisor with CMS on the PACE Innovation Act and a Community Catalyst along with Pennsylvania Health Access Network on Community HealthChoices, a mandatory managed long-term services and supports program in Pennsylvania.
She is now a Nurse Scientist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where she is engaged in research focused on decreasing agitation in persons with dementia and/or delirium using the PARO robot. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Gerontological Nursing and Research in Gerontological Nursing. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Academy of Nursing, and a Past President of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association. She served as a Convener of the Expert Panel on Aging for the American Academy of Nursing.
Dr. Cacchione holds an MSN as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner from Marymount University School of Nursing, and a PhD from Saint Louis University School of Nursing. Her post doctorate was completed at the University of Iowa College of Nursing focused on delirium in sensory impaired rural older adults in long-term care.
