Restoring Wholeness to the Heart of Nursing Leadership

Taryn De Sio Garber, M.Ed., MS, is a healthcare leader and educator with over 15 years of experience designing and facilitating evidence-informed leadership and well-being initiatives for nurses and healthcare organizations. She is the Founder of Whole Health Consulting, LLC, and has held leadership roles at NYU Langone Health and the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, focusing on whole-person leadership, professional education, and system-level transformation.

Darah Salmaggi, MS is the Founder of Sharing Therapeace LLC and Program Manager for the Department of Integrative Health at NYU Langone Health. She has worked in the field of clinical integrative health since 2006, designing evidence-informed wellness and resilience programming for healthcare leaders, staff, and communities. She brings thousands of hours of facilitation experience and specializes in professionalizing self-care through holistic approaches. Darah is a certified Reiki Master Teacher, Eden Energy Medicine Practitioner, Advanced Practitioner through the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, and a Certified Clinical Emotional Freedom Technique Practitioner.

Kate Valcin serves as the Chief Nurse Executive for the University of Rochester Medical Center, a major academic urban teaching hospital. Before this role, she spent 10 years as the Director of Adult Critical Care Nursing and seven years as the Nurse Manager of the Medical Intensive Care Unit, bringing deep leadership experience in complex clinical environments. Her role and mission are centered on two core commitments: keeping patients safe and keeping staff engaged. She tirelessly advocates for healthy work environments and leads efforts to improve patient outcomes by working closely with frontline teams. Academically, Kate earned her undergraduate degree from Roberts Wesleyan College and a Master’s in Nursing with a concentration in education from Duke University. She later completed a post-master’s certificate as a Clinical Nurse Leader and earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from the University of Rochester. In recognition of her contributions to critical care nursing, she has been inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Critical Care Medicine. Kate is deeply committed to advancing nursing leadership. As the current President of the New York Organization for Nursing Leadership, she advocates for the voice of nurses at every level—from the bedside to the boardroom. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of Haiti Providence University, supporting the development of future leaders in Haiti through education, including in the field of nursing.