Class Notes – Fall 2014

60s

Kathleen Smith Lewis, BSN ‘66, has written a book, “Challenges of LIVING with Chronic Illness—Beginnings & Endings,” which is available on Amazon.com. She lives in Atlanta.

Sandra Jones Campbell, PhD, RN, BSN ‘69, received the John & Suanne Roueche Excellence Award from The League of Innovation for co-creating a civility code of conduct with a class of registered nurse students pursuing a baccalaureate degree at St. Petersburg College, in Florida.  She was also awarded a St. Petersburg College Foundation Innovation grant for 2013-2014: “Civility in Academics & Nursing: Beginning the Civility Conversation.”  Recently retired as a full-time professor at St. Petersburg College, Campbell is currently president of a seminar/consulting firm, Winning Within, Inc.

70s

Diane Cody Roberts, BSN ‘73, was elected to serve as the chair of the Private and Parochial School Nurse Association. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Cecelia Kennedy Page, BSN ‘79, DNP ‘14 (VUSN Founder’s Medalist), FACHE, is the University of Kentucky HealthCare’s new chief information officer.  In this role, she will lead UK HealthCare’s information technology division and is responsible for maintaining momentum on information technology strategies, governance, implementations and service delivery.

 

80s

Cathy Mezmar, MSN ‘81, is the Chief of Quality Management for Veterans Administration Texas Valley Coastal Bend Health Care System and is based in Harlingen, Texas. Her husband, Michael Mezmar, MSN ‘81, is serving his second term as a Harlingen city commissioner.

Julie Bomberger Lindley, BSN ‘83, RN, MSN, received her MSN in Nursing Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington in May.

90s

Sharon Dowdy, MSN ‘85, PhD ‘99, has retired from teaching at Belmont University in Nashville. She and her husband are traveling the world with recent trips to Italy, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Singapore. She also regularly visits grandchildren in California and Maryland.

Beverly Byram, MSN ‘92, program director of the Part D Ryan White program at the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic, received the 2014 Salute to Nurses Community Outreach Award from the Tennessee Nurses Association and The Tennessean newspaper.

Sarah Fogel, MSN ‘94, PhD ‘01, has been accepted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She was inducted in October in Washington, DC.  She is the director of Vanderbilt School of Nursing’s ASN to MSN program.

Jo Carol Stephens, MSN ‘94, was selected as the director of KentuckyOne Health’s new healthy lifestyle centers. Stephens has been working for Louisville-based KentuckyOne and its legacy organizations for about 28 years. Before getting involved with the healthy lifestyle centers, she worked as a team leader in the system’s cardiac research center.

Michael William Vollman, MSN ’94, PhD ’03, is now a full-time academic faculty member at Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia (MTSA). Vollman will teach in both MTSA’s Master of Science and Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice programs. He has previously taught at Vanderbilt and Georgetown universities.

Alyce Goodman-Abraham, MSN ‘95, APRN, was awarded the 2014 Ellen Bailey Nurse Practitioner Award for the state of Kentucky.  This award was for outstanding advanced clinical practice, service to the profession, strong clinical competence, leadership and community involvement.  She is the nurse practitioner of the Pelvic Pain Regional Specialty Center at the Jewish Hospital Medical Center East in Louisville, Kentucky.  She serves as the Louisville director for the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners.

Connie M. Chenosky-Miller, MSN ‘97, DNP, FNP-BC, CDE, BC-ADM, completed the DNP at the University of Northern Colorado in May.  Her capstone project was on the Patient Centered Medical Home—a Practice Analysis and diabetes.  She works at the Cheyenne VA Medical Center in ambulatory care.

2000s

Margot (Walker) Harris, MSN ‘00, and her husband, Joshua, welcomed son John Franklin, April 17, 2013.  He joins Sawyer (10), Eva (8), and Isaac (3).  The family lives in Janesville, Wisconsin.  She is a women’s health nurse practitioner and lactation consultant in an OB-GYN clinic and a naturopathic clinic.

Melinda Easley, MSN ‘02, married Kenneth R. Luckay, MD, on June 14. The couple is in practice together in Roanoke, Virginia. They have seven children and four grandchildren combined.

Aimee Chism Holland, MSN ‘02, DNP, WHNP-BC, FNP-BC, RD, was presented with the 2014 Award of Excellence in Community Service for her dedication to improving the lives of women and newborns through community service. The award was presented at the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses national convention in Orlando, Florida.  Holland is an assistant nursing professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she coordinates the dual Adult-Gerontology Primary Care and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Specialty track.

Deanna Christine Pilkenton, MSN ‘02, CNM, took two nursing students to the Dominican Republic in July, as part of Project HOPE’s support of women’s and children’s health clinics.

Melanie Allison, MSN ‘03, DNP, graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree in May. She successfully defended her project, “An Evidence-Based Approach to Cascade Screen Relatives for Familial Hypercholesterolemia.”

Brandon Roark, MSN ‘06, APRN, NPC, is the owner of Tri-State Family Healthcare located in Middlesboro, Kentucky. Roark is a registered Family Nurse Practitioner in Kentucky and Tennessee. He is ACLS and PALS certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. Roark’s experience includes caring for patients in the emergency room and five years in the intensive care unit, as well as medical/surgical skilled nursing.

Tracey Kiesau, MSN ‘08, DNP ‘12, has been named the director of children’s services at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, Georgia.  Prior to that, she was the clinical manager of Maternal Child Health at Oklahoma State University Medical Center in Tulsa.  She is a registered nurse who has served in pediatric departments in hospitals in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Tracey and her husband, Trent, have a daughter, 13, and a son, 11.

Tommy L. Thompson Jr., MSN ‘08, is an active Shriner and works with Fitzgerald Health Associates to help a medical missionary family abroad transport their child to a Shriner hospital. Thompson also serves as the Worshipful Master of Clarksville Lodge #89 Free and Accepted Masons in Clarksville, Tennessee.  Thompson is a veteran of the U.S. Army, receiving several accolades during his 20 years of service.

Bethany A. Rhoten, MSN ‘09, PhD ‘13, VUSN Postdoctoral Fellow, has been named a V-POCKET Scholar. V-POCKET is Vanderbilt’s institutional K-12 award in patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Rhoten’s project will be a patient-centered outcomes study to address gaps in current knowledge about communication between surgeons and patients with recurrent head and neck cancer. It will also identify factors that influence patient choice of treatment, desired outcomes and patient satisfaction with treatment.

Melissa Armstrong Glassford, MSN ‘10, earned a DNP at The University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis. Her project was “An evaluation of the effectiveness of self-monitoring of blood glucose practices in uninsured patients with diabetes mellitus.”

Bryan McPherson, MSN ‘10, has a new position at the Veteran’s Administration in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, following two years at Fort Campbell. His job responsibilities include working in the psychiatric outpatient clinic and the emergency department.  His oldest daughter started Lipscomb University in Nashville this fall with a provost scholarship.

Tina Crabtree, MSN ‘12, serves as a nurse practitioner at Mercy Clinic Midwest City in Oklahoma.

Kate FitzPatrick, DNP ‘12, RN, NEA-BC, ACNP-BC, is the Clinical Director of the Neurosciences Nursing & Women’s Health & Neonatal Nursing at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She has been chosen as a 2014-2017 Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow, which comes with $35,000 to support project work in an area of her interest. She was inducted into the American Academy of Nursing in October.

Mary A. Green, MSN ‘12, and her husband, Aaron, welcomed daughter, Adaline “Ada” Faith on June 5 at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she practices in her dual role as a Certified Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner.

 

In Memoriam

Bernice T. McCord, attended VUSN ‘44, died on Jan. 15 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Janice Feagin Olson Britton, BSN ‘44, died on Feb. 20 in Spanish Fort, Alabama.

Mildred S. Mann, BSN ‘45, of Luther Crest and formerly of East Greenville, Pennsylvania, died on Jan. 13.

Cloace Ferguson McGill, BSN ‘47, died on June 4 in Canyon Lake, Texas.

Betty Ann Voigt, BSN ‘47, died on Feb. 4 in Versailles, Kentucky.

Martha Milligan Larsen, BSN ‘48, died on July 7 in Columbus, North Carolina.

Mary Lynn Gabor, BSN ‘55, died on Feb. 6 in Burr Ridge, Illinois.

Alice Jane Brown Petry, BSN ‘56, died on May 20 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Susan Philbin Walsh, BSN ‘61, died on June 21 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rosemary P. Henrion, MSN ‘72, died on April 2 in Pass Christian, Mississippi.

Nancy Harris Smith, BSN ‘77, died on Feb. 18 in Homewood, Alabama.

Laura N. Trent, BSN ‘77, died on Jan. 8 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anne Lindegard Oakley, BSN ‘80, died on Feb. 20 in Whispering Pines, North Carolina.

Diana Kristen Soule, MSN ‘97, died on June 7 in Concord, New Hampshire.

Mareeka Carol Geerdes Bachuss, MSN ‘05, died on March 12 in Franklin, Tennessee.

 

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