UTSW Opioid Safety Orientation: Setting A Strong Foundation from Day 1

Summera – as a Senior Project Manager since 2022, she is a highly regarded member of UTSW’s incidence response team, called the Controlled Substance Investigation Team or CSIT. She proudly serves on the IHFDA Research Committee. She holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Health Administration and Master of Science in Health Administration (M.H.A.) from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Summera is passionate about quality improvement, is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified, and has received her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.  

She has led or collaborated on a great number of significant Health System Process Improvement projects. Summera designed and launched three UTSW Opioid Safety Awareness (OSA) Events impacting over 900 clinical and non-clinical staff, and the “Controlled Substance Medication Safety Rounds (CSMSR)” AKA, diversion risk rounds. Both CSMSR and the OSA Event were featured at previous IHFDA Conferences as poster presentations and co-presented at IHFDA Webinars in 2024 and 2025. She delivered a podium presentation on OST Community Outreach, “Moving Beyond Our Walls: Community Impact of Education on Opioid Safety” at the 10th annual conference in Frisco, September 2025.  

She has received numerous accolades from UTSW stakeholders, senior leadership, and was awarded the UTSW 2024 Non-Clinical Patient Safety Star Award demonstrating her contributions to exceptional patient and employee safety 

Nora – earned a Master of Science in Healthcare Leadership & Management and a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Studies, both from the University of Texas at Dallas. Nora is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certified.

Within the Quality and Operational Excellence team, Nora is passionate about leading and collaborating on health system quality improvement projects that have resulted in highly impactful project outcomes and clinical workflows. Her daily controlled substance surveillance and investigations role models best practices from the American Society of Healthcare Pharmacist (ASHP) Diversion Prevention Guidelines.

Spring of 2025 was significant for Nora because she received an award for ‘top 5 poster’ under the ‘safety’ category at her institutional quality Celebration of Excellence (COE) on “Standardizing Shift-to-Shift Inventory Count Compliance.” She earned the UTSW Bronze level Academy for Performance Improvement Excellence (APEX) Award. During the 2025 IHFDA National Conference, she presented a poster presentation on “Standardizing Shift-to-Shift Inventory Count Compliance”. This will also be presented during a live national IHFDA Webinar in 2026.

Shelby began her healthcare career as a licensed Occupational Therapist, joining UT Southwestern in 2016 and providing bedside care across a wide range of patients and diagnoses. In 2020, Shelby transitioned into leadership as Assistant Manager for Acute Therapy Services where she focused on quality improvement through patient care, employee onboarding, staff and patient education, regulatory preparedness, and compliance—all aimed at enhancing patient care and satisfaction. Driven by a passion for safety, excellence, and innovation, Shelby leads strategic initiatives to promote safe handling of controlled substances. Shelby’s work is grounded in teamwork, compassion, and a commitment to elevating care for the UT Southwestern community. Shelby is also a proud recipient of the Gold-level UT Southwestern APEX Award.