100 Most Influential People in Healthcare – 2016

• Compensation: $110,022 - according to 2014 IRS Form 990
• Years on list: 2

As head of the nation's largest nurses association since 2014, Cipriano holds nothing back when defending the interests of the more than 3 million registered nurses practicing in myriad settings across the nation. Cipriano, who holds a doctorate in executive nursing administration, is a familiar voice in op-eds on issues involving the profession. She has defended nurse practitioners providing primary care in the Veterans Affairs Department amid criticism that without physicians overseeing the nurses, veterans would receive second-class care from them. And in a May statement, she applauded the U.S. Navy for not pursuing further action against a Navy nurse who refused to continue force-feeding detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.