Welcome to my online portfolio. I am a Doctor of Nursing Practice, board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner. This portfolio is updated regularly with career changes.
I am currently a full-time Family Nurse Practitioner for AdventHealth (primary care).
Formerly I have also worked as a part-time adjunct instructor for the University of Central Florida. Previous NP work involved performing COVID-19 testing for CVS MinuteClinic. In my six years as a registered nurse prior to that, I gained experience in pediatrics, acute cardiac (adult), and in public health. I was formerly secretary for the Sigma Theta Tau International Theta Epsilon chapter at UCF. I was a chair on my unit's Transforming Care at the Bedside committee and a member of my hospital system's ethics committee through 2017. I was the Volunteer Services Chair for the Organization of Doctoral Students in Nursing at UCF from 2018-2019, and from 2018 to 2021 I volunteered with the children's ministry at my local church.
My interests include the care of children and adults with autism in primary care settings, diagnosing of and interventions for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in all ages as an underserved population, rural and underserved population health, improving health literacy, LGBT-Q health and suicide prevention in teens, cardiology (all ages), and telehealth applications. The focus of my doctoral project was improving awareness and detection of ASD in adults, patient-provider relationships through communication and environment modifications, and the primary outpatient care of adults with ASD. Other goals of the DNP project included stigma reduction and the provision of interventions to improve chronic disease management to improve the health of this population through evidence-based practices.
In my personal life I enjoy spending time with my husband and our baby daughter in our hometown of Port Orange, Florida. My interests include gardening, going to the beach, baking, reading, running, and caring for our small indoor zoo. I also mentor undergraduate and graduate nursing students at UCF.
A few of my favorite quotes:
"The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have." - Vince Lombardi
"The person who uses mature forms of reasoning does not seek absolute answers to questions in life but rather seeks meaning of life events as integrated within a moral, social, and historical context." - Pamela Reed
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Train (Innocents Abroad)