Dr. Clarissa Michalak is a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and experienced nurse educator with a strong clinical foundation in acute and critical care. She began her nursing career at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and later served as a nurse practitioner at NYU Langone Medical Center.
She joined the MGH Institute of Health Professions in 2024 after serving as the founding director of the AGACNP program at the University of New Hampshire. There, she developed the AGACNP curriculum and a graduate course in genomics and ethics. Her teaching approach blends simulation-based learning, diagnostic reasoning, and future-focused content like clinical genomics to prepare students for modern, data-informed practice.
Dr. Michalak practices as a per diem hospitalist in Maine and Massachusetts, ensuring her teaching remains clinically grounded and supporting student placements across diverse settings. Her scholarly interests include simulation, acute care pharmacology, genomics integration, and improving equity in advanced practice education.
She is the recipient of the 2025 AANP State Award for Excellence and is a 2023–2024 TIGER Fellow in Genomics. She was also selected for the 2024 AACN Diversity Leadership Cohort. In 2025, she was appointed to the Society of Hospital Medicine’s NPs and PAs in Hospital Medicine Advisory Council and to AACN’s AGACNP Practice Analysis Task Force, contributing to the advancement of national standards in AGACNP education and certification. She is also a frequent national presenter on topics such as acute care, heart failure, and innovations in nurse practitioner education.
BSN: University of Maine; Orono, ME
MS Nursing Education: Towson University; Towson, MD
PM-AGACNP: UMass Medical School; Worcester, MA
DNP: New York University; New York, NY