AACN Board
July 2025-June 2028
Daniel L. Arellano, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC, AOCNP, CCRN, CEN, CFRN, EMT-P, FCCM, FAANP, serves a three-year term as a director on the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) Board of Directors from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.
Arellano is an acute care nurse practitioner (ACNP) in the ICU at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and an assistant professor of nursing at University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). During his 13 years of academic experience, he has taught undergraduate pathophysiology, high-acuity nursing and ACNP curriculum.
An AACN ambassador since 2017, he has been a speaker at NTI for many years. He is co-author of a report in the American Journal of Critical Care that helped drive changes in The Joint Commission’s titration standards. He is a member of AACN’s Houston Gulf Coast Chapter (2011-present) serving as treasurer-elect (2024-2025), and a past member of AACN’s Rochester Chapter (2009-2011).
Arellano has held leadership roles at local, state and national levels and is a speaker on topics related to critical care and diversity. In addition to AACN, his affiliations include being a member of the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee (2024-present), and previous chair of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, Nursing Section (2020-2023).
Arellano is a fellow in the American College of Critical Care Medicine and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. He also received the Norma J. Shoemaker Award for Critical Care Nursing Excellence from the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
He earned undergraduate and graduate nursing degrees from the University of Rochester in New York and completed a PhD at UTHealth; his dissertation focused on vasopressor titration strategies in septic shock.
Arellano says, “I love to sing karaoke and have participated in and won several small local karaoke competitions.”