The University of Utah College of Nursing will welcome Elizabeth Johnson, PhD, MS-CRM, RN, as this year's speaker for the Bonnie and Vern Bullough Endowed Lectureship on November 3, 2026, in Alumni Hall at the Spencer F. and Cleone P. Eccles Health Sciences Education Building.
Johnson will present "Vision through Visibility," a talk exploring how creativity, design thinking, and intentional observation can reshape healthcare delivery and the patient experience. Drawing on examples from clinical practice, innovation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, she will discuss how making ideas visible can strengthen leadership, sharpen problem-solving, and deepen professional identity among healthcare professionals. She will close with practical strategies for cultivating creativity within teams and fostering joy in care environments.
The lecture will be offered twice, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and again from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., to accommodate attendees' schedules. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP before October 29.
Johnson is an assistant professor at the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing and co–director of the Biomedical Innovation for Research and Development Hub at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, Montana, where her work sits at the intersection of community-based participatory design, clinical system infrastructure appraisal, and innovative research approaches to healthcare and technology development. She currently teaches Design of Healthcare Delivery Systems, an interprofessional graduate course that brings nursing and engineering students together to solve real-world challenges in patient care quality and system efficiency.
Her research centers on advancing digital health technologies to improve safety and monitoring in clinical trials, work that has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Nurses Association, the Genentech Innovation Fund, the National Science Foundation's I-Corps program, and the MSU/U.S. Economic Development Administration. She is also a member of The Engine, a nonprofit incubator and accelerator for Tough Tech created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she contributes to the development of high-impact healthcare innovations.
A nationally recognized leader in healthcare design and clinical research nursing, Johnson currently serves as President of the Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design, Health Systems Advisory Board member for the Coalition for Health AI, and member of the American Nurses Association Innovation Advisory Committee for Technology and Medical Devices. She recently chaired the Research Committee of the International Association of Clinical Research Nurses. Before entering academia, she worked as a clinical research nurse, trial manager, and global early-phase development leader across hospital and industry settings, supporting pediatric endocrinology and adult oncology programs.
"Dr. Johnson exemplifies exactly the kind of scholar this lectureship was created to recognize," says Marla De Jong, PhD, RN, CCNS, FAAN, Dean of the College of Nursing. "Her work bridges nursing, design, and technology in ways that are already changing how care is delivered, especially in rural, frontier, and tribal communities. Her commitment to mentoring the next generation of nurse innovators reflects the same values we strive to instill in our own students. We're honored to welcome her to campus."
In 1996, Dr. Vern L. Bullough established the Bonnie and Vern Bullough Endowed Lectureship in memory of his wife, Dr. Bonnie Bullough, a prominent nursing scholar and a pioneer of the nurse practitioner movement. His intent was for a nurse scholar of national prominence to visit the College of Nursing each year to share knowledge that advances the scientific foundation of nursing. Bonnie, a Delta, Utah native, earned her nursing degree from the Salt Lake General Hospital School of Nursing, then affiliated with the University of Utah; she later added a master's in nursing from UCLA and a PhD in sociology. Vern, born in Salt Lake City, earned his A.B. from the University of Utah in 1951, followed by a PhD from the University of Chicago and, in 1981, a B.S.N. from California State University, Long Beach.