John Welch

Biography

John Welch is the founding director of the Nurse Anesthesia DNP program at the College of Nursing, where he led design, accreditation and implementation. He is also a senior nurse anesthetist in the Division of Cardiac Anesthesia at Boston Children's Hospital and previously founded the hospital's Pediatric Nurse Anesthesia Fellowship, one of the first programs of its kind in the U.S. He is also the founding co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nurse Anesthesiology & Perioperative Practice.

Dr. Welch's clinical and scholarly interests include pediatric and cardiac anesthesia, nurse anesthesiology education, health policy, health equity, global health and patient safety. His publications include various chapters in A Practice of Anesthesia for Infants and Children, Evidence-Informed Health Policy, and numerous peer-reviewed articles addressing anesthesia practice, perioperative care, global health and healthcare systems. He also co-authored influential publications describing the Massachusetts COVID-19 Community Tracing Collaborative, one of the nation's largest public health contact tracing initiatives.

Beyond academia, Dr. Welch has extensive international leadership experience with Partners In Health, where he lived and worked in Haiti and Sierra Leone developing nurse anesthesia education programs, strengthening health systems and directing clinical operations during the West African Ebola epidemic. A Buckeye for life, he earned a BSN and DNP from Ohio State; he earned an MS in Nurse Anesthesia from Boston College. He is honored to serve the profession through education, scholarship and editorial leadership dedicated to advancing nurse anesthesiology and perioperative practice.