SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

I’m currently enrolled in the doctor of nurse practitioner program at South Dakota State University with a focus on family practice nursing. I also completed my undergraduate nursing degree through SDSU. Nursing is much more than simply a career for me. Nursing has provided me with the opportunity to participate in the health care of individuals from all walks of life. I am currently employed as a registered nurse at the Brookings Health System on the medical surgical unit and at the Brookings Ambulatory Surgery Center and Pain Clinic as a circulating/post anesthesia nurse. It is my intention to practice as a family nurse practitioner and address access issues and coping strategies for veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I hope to obtain a position which will allow me to give back, by providing quality health care, to the veteran men and women who have served and protected my family and our country. My professional goals and aspirations are many in addition to my aspirations to serve our veterans; however, my primary goal at this time in my career is to learn as much as possible in my current nursing role while concurrently completing the doctorate of nursing program. I have aspirations to be a leader in my profession and possibly someday to teach at the collegiate level which would allow me to share my love, passion, and enthusiasm for the profession of nursing with future nursing students.

I am currently a student in the Nursing BS to PhD program at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. I received my BS at the University of MA Lowell in 2010. Since 2010, I have worked as a registered nurse at the Bedford, Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. While working as a staff and charge nurse, I developed a passion for helping U.S. veterans to better care for themselves. Thus, my research focus is on reintegration challenges and outcomes among U.S. veterans. I plan to better understand resilience and risk factors for reintegration challenges to better target post-deployment interventions. My long-term goal is to assist veterans with complex health issues to better self-manage their reintegration challenges. Since 2015, I have also worked as a research assistant at two VA hospitals in MA- Bedford and Jamaica Plain (Boston). I continue to work on numerous research projects related to veterans. Since 2015, I have also worked as a research fellow with the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare. I have received the Clifford scholarship (2014) and the Schwartz Fellowship (2015).