COPE for HOPE, Inc.
about us

Our Team

 Bernadette Melnyk . Nancy Feinstein . Eileen Fairbanks . Holly Brown

Photo of Bernadette MelnykBernadette Melnyk
President
RN, PhD, PNP, CPNP/PMHNP, FNAP, FAAN

Dr. Bernadette Melnyk is a nationally/internationally recognized expert, author, lecturer, nurse practitioner and researcher in pediatrics, child and adolescent mental health, and evidence-based practice. Over the past 2 decades, she has conducted multiple studies establishing the efficacy of the COPE program for parents of critically ill/hospitalized children, premature infants and their parents. Dr. Melnyk is both a pediatric nurse practitioner and child-family psychiatric nurse practitioner with over 140 publications, including 2 books [Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare. A Guide to Best Practice and the KySS Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Screening, Early Intervention and Health Promotion]. She has received numerous national and regional awards for her work, and is an elected fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the National Academies of Practice. Dr. Melnyk earned her BSN at West Virginia University, her MSN at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by her PhD and Post-Master’s Certification in Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at the University of Rochester.

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Photo of Nancy Feinstein Nancy Feinstein
Vice President
PhD, MSN, RNC

Dr. Nancy Feinstein is a nationally recognized expert with over 30 years of clinical, teaching, and research experience as a perinatal nurse. She also has served on national committees for the Association of Women’s Health and Neonatal Nursing (AWHONN) and was a co-developer/author of the AWHONN Fetal Heart Monitoring Program. She has conducted intervention research to promote coping, particularly women coping with preterm labor, as Principal Investigator, and with parents coping with the birth of a premature infant, as Co- Investigator of the Improving outcomes of LBW Premature Infants and Parents study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, NIH. She is an author and co-author on multiple evidence-based peer reviewed articles and papers presented nationally and internationally. Her education includes earning her BSN from State University of Albany, Albany, NY and a Masters Degree with a focus on the developing family from Catholic University in Washington, DC. She earned her PhD in Nursing at the University of Rochester.

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Photo of Eileen FairbanksEileen Fairbanks
Vice President
MS, RN, PNP

Ms. Eileen Fairbanks is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) with 35 years of pediatric nursing experience, including acute care, primary school health and pediatric homecare specialization. She has been involved with the COPE NICU Program including both the pilot and full-scale research projects, for which she served as the Study Project Coordinator. She has been closely involved in all phases of project implementation and management, training of study personnel, participant enrollment and data management. Eileen earned her BSN at the University of Arizona, followed by her MSN, PNP at the University of Rochester.

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