Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco DNP, PNP-BC, CPNP

Coordinator, Child Health Suffolk County Department of Health Services, NY (retired)

Dr. Mary Beth Koslap-Petraco is coordinator for child health at Suffolk County Department of Health Service in New York, a primary care provider and preceptor for graduate and undergraduate students, and an assistant professor at Long Island University Post in Greenvale, New York. She is a nationally known expert in immunization practice and is an advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and served on the Advisory Board of the Immunization Action Coalition and National Vaccine Advisory Committee. Dr. Koslap-Petraco has advised local and state health departments on immunization public policies using her expertise as a public health nurse to influence system level changes. Dr. Koslap-Petraco is the PKIDS online Advice Nurse, and currently serves on the Executive Board and Scientific Advisory Board of Every Child by Two.

Dr. Koslap-Petraco has provided written, audio, and video commentary for three widely read parent education web sites: pkids.org, shotofprevention.org, and vaccinateyourbaby.org. She led the development of the staff influenza immunization program for the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. This project realized a sustained staff immunization rate over 90% for over five years. Her personal passion and enthusiasm for quality healthcare for children and families has been recognized through numerous recognition awards from both consumer groups and professional societies. Dr. Koslap-Petraco has collaborated on several evidence-based projects to improve the health care outcomes for high risk infants, toddlers, and adolescent mothers. In addition, she has championed her individual work to reduce the incidence of obesity in the pediatric population. Dr. Koslap-Petraco has been an invited speaker at multiple international, national, state, and local conferences. In recognition of her work in clinical practice and public policy she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Dr. Koslap-Petraco is widely published, and has authored chapters on immunizations in two textbooks. She received the Doctor of Nursing Practice and an MS in child health and pediatric nursing from Stony Brook University where her doctoral project centered on the prevention of overweight in Latino preschoolers. Dr. Koslap-Petraco received a BSN from Excelsior College in Albany, New York and earned a diploma from the Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City.

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