Jennifer Lovato, MSN, RN, is a senior lecturer at The University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Nursing. She worked primarily in the trauma/burn subacute unit at UNM Hospital and was a nurse educator for the nurse residency program, working with graduate nurses.

As a graduate student completing her field work hours, she became enthusiastic about health care simulation and transferred from the nurse residency program to the simulation lab at the College of Nursing. Lovato is credited with creating the Simulation Lab in 2012. Before then, the students had one high-fidelity manikin on which to train. With grant funding, Lovato was able to secure four high-fidelity simulation manikins for use by the Health Sciences Center at the Interprofessional Healthcare Simulation Center. In 2015, she began teaching nursing fundamentals Level I students in the undergraduate program. She also teaches assessment to Level II and Level V students during their Capstone rotation.

Her research interests are in nursing residency program retention and its return on investment for graduate nurses in hospital settings. She also has completed poster presentations on health care simulation and the educational benefits of total immersion in simulation. Lovato received both her Master of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees at the UNM College of Nursing.