Program Director

MiKaela M. Olsen, DNP, APRN-CNS, AOCNS®, FAAN, is the Clinical Program Director for Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Johns Hopkins Health System. Dr. Olsen serves as adjunct faculty for the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and has a joint faculty appointment with the Johns Hopkins University. She is also a faculty associate at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Dr. Olsen received her BS in nursing from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth Texas in 1989 and an MS with special emphasis in oncology nursing from the University of California at San Francisco in 1996. She graduated with her doctor of nursing practice degree from University of Maryland in 2019. She is a certified advanced oncology clinical nurse specialist.

Dr. Olsen is currently the lead editor for the first edition of the Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (2019). She served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology and Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Chemotherapy Safety Standards Workgroup (2016). She is the lead editor of the book, Hematologic Malignancies in Adults, the first nursing textbook published to guide nurses in the care of patients with hematologic malignancies. Dr. Olsen has published and extensively presented on the topic of safe handling of hazardous drugs.

Working closely with the Institute for Safe Medication Practices as an expert advisory panelist, she has written recommendations for safe administration of chemotherapy and adult intravenous push medications. To increase nurses’ knowledge of the potential serious health risks associated with hazardous drug exposure, she assisted in the development of ONS continuing education courses. As an instructor and consultant, Dr. Olsen has traveled to multiple countries including Singapore, United Arab Emirates, China, Bulgaria, and Japan to increase awareness of hazardous drug exposure risks and safe handling.

Sarah Donahue, MPH, NP, is a nurse practitioner at the University of California San Francisco Health, who cares for patients with breast cancer who are receiving chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or newer targeted therapies that block the spread of the disease.

She earned her MPH and MS in nursing from Yale University. She belongs to the Oncology Nursing Society and is certified as an adult oncology nurse practitioner. Sarah loves spending free time with her husband, 2 sons, and 2 cats. She enjoys running outdoors, eating good food, and making art with her children.

Mikel Ross, MSN, RN, AGPCNP-BC, OCN, CBCN, is a board-certified nurse practitioner on the Breast Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center. In this role, he collaborates with an interdisciplinary team to deliver medical oncology care to patients with breast cancer across the continuum of care. In addition to patient care, he collaborates on many initiatives including oral oncolytic adherence, proactive management of symptomatic patients, and most notably as the lead clinician for the MSK’s scalp cooling program to limit chemotherapy-induced alopecia. His publications reflect this work with authorships on the topics of scalp cooling, oral medication adherence, and proactive management of patient symptoms in oncology practice.

Mikel’s background is varied both in education and employment. He earned a BA in political science and a BS in business administration as a Pershing Scholar from Truman State University (1986). He then obtained an MA in international relations as a Rotary Scholar from the University of Kent in Canterbury (1990). His nursing education includes a BSN from St. Louis University (1996) and most recently an MSN from Hunter College (2018). He has worked in both industry and clinical practice for multiple organizations including Boeing, Washington University in St. Louis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and now MSK.

Alisa Ryncarz, RN, MSN, AGACNP-BC, is a nurse practitioner who specializes in oncology in the New York City metro area. After graduating from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, she began her career at the Mount Sinai Hospital’s inpatient hematology/oncology group and outpatient medical oncology team at the Dubin Breast Center, where she stayed for 6 years. She has recently expanded her oncology scope to include radiation oncology, working at the New York Proton Center and caring for patients with breast and thoracic malignancies.