Class Notes 1980-1989

• Barb Duffy, BSN’80, MSN’91, PMC’98, received the Excellence in Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center for 2023.
• Chita Cisneros Farrar, BSN’75, MSN’80, EdD’84, of Phoenix passed away September 2, 2025.
• Regina Cates Featheringill, MSN’80, of Birmingham, Alabama, passed away April 6, 2024.
• Susan Martin, BSN’80, of Durham, North Carolina, passed away April 30, 2023.
• Cole Powers, BSN’80, MSN’84, received the VUSN Award for Faculty Achievement and was published in the Journal of Nursing Education, both in 2023. She is an assistant professor at VUSN.

• Suanne Rogers Barlow, MSN’81, of Tampa, Florida, passed away March 2, 2025.
• Georgia Carruth, MSN’81, of Nashville passed away May 18, 2025.
• Liz Goy Damato, BSN’81, is senior research physiologist at the Naval Medical Research Unit in Dayton, Ohio, and an associate professor at Case Western Reserve’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and school of medicine in Cleveland (2024).
• Virginia Nolen Hudson, MSN’81, is a family nurse practitioner at Your Town Health in Palmetto, Georgia (2023).
• Pam Orebaugh Jones, BSN’81, MSN’92, DNP’13, served as Distinguished Speaker at VUSN’s pinning ceremony in 2024, and was quoted in rewire news group for “How This Southern University Is Leading on Campus Reproductive Health.” She was published in 2023 in The Journal of Nursing Administration, and was co-recipient a $2.8 million Health Resources and Services Administration Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention Simulation Education Training Program grant. Pam is associate vice chancellor for health and wellness at Vanderbilt.
• Paula Clark Klein, BSN’81, of Birmingham, Alabama, and Lakeland, Florida, passed away March 31, 2024.
• Anne Atkinson Moore, BSN’76, MSN’81, served as a peer reviewer for a 2023 edition of Women's Healthcare: A Clinical Journal for NPs. She is assistant vice president of women’s health services at Peppy, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
• Evelyn Smith Springer, MSN’81, of Brentwood, Tennessee, passed away May 31, 2025.

• Tricia Benson, BSN’82, is chief of staff and associate dean at Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in Atlanta, where she had served as executive director of the Lillian Carter Center (2025).
• Melissa Terry Fish, BSN’82, retired after 33 years as a certified nurse-midwife, attending over 4,000 births and providing clinical training for nurse practitioner, midwifery and medical students in ambulatory and inpatient settings. She has a farm in Talbot County, Georgia, where she grows flowers, raises Deutsch Drahthaars and pursues landscape painting (2024).
• Catherine Hoffman Garner, BSN’76, MSN’82, completed a Harvard-Macy Foundation fellowship in educational innovation, and is a fellow in both the American Academy of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship. She has a doctorate in public health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s in public administration from Tennessee State University in Nashville (2023).
• Cynthia Mason, BSN’82, of Cincinnati passed away May 5, 2023.
• Elizabeth Rudolph, BSN’82, MSN’85, JD’89, was keynote presenter at the University of Southern Indiana Nursing Leadership Conference in April 2025, presenting, “How to Reduce Your Liability: For Nursing Leaders,” and “Surefire Documentation Techniques for Nursing Leaders,” and a panelist for “From Nurse to Entrepreneur: VUSN Alumni Share Their Stories,” in 2023, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum. She is founder and chief executive officer of JurexNurse.com professional certification for legal nurse consultants and a public speaker, living near Memphis.
• Tamara Trevarthen, BSN’82, of Birmingham, Alabama, passed away March 16, 2025.

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• Joanie Laughlin Jeannette, BSN’83, MSN’04, DNP’23, was named past president of the VUSN Alumni Board in 2023. She is administrative director of adult inpatient medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
• Catherine Carpenter Marinak, BSN’83, was featured in South Florida Hospital News in July 2025 in “Cancer Center of South Florida Launches Genetics Program for Cancer Risk,” and was featured in South Florida Hospital News and Healthcare Report in November for leading the Hereditary Cancer Prevention and Risk Program at TGH Cancer Institute/Cancer Center of South Florida in Tampa. She is a hereditary risk counselor and nurse practitioner in the hereditary cancer prevention and risk program at the TGH Cancer Institute/Cancer Center of South Florida in Palm Beach Gardens.
• Karla Lopez Mavity, BSN’83, is recognition coordinator at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (2025).
• Melanie Hall Morris, BSN’83, MSN’86, co-presented, “Transformational Change: Our Journey to Caring Science at Vanderbilt School of Nursing,” hosted in March 2025 by the International Association for Human Caring, and was featured by the DAISY Foundation in its website spotlight in April. She co-presented, “Integrating Well-being into a Pre-licensure Nursing Clinical Judgement Course Series,” at the National Summit on Promoting Well-Being and Resilience in Healthcare Professionals in 2024. Melanie is an assistant professor at VUSN.
• Olivia Miller Smith, BSN’83, was on Nashville’s Talk of the Town in 2024 to discuss her business, Write A New Story, and was interviewed by WKRN in Nashville in 2023. She is a personal development coach, as well as founder of Healing Housing.
• Kathleen Wooldridge Wolff, MSN’83, was published in Advances in Radiation Oncology in 2023. She is a nurse practitioner in the Vanderbilt Osher Center in Nashville.

• Suzanne McMurtry Baird, BSN’84, MSN’95, co-authored the book, AWHONN's High Risk & Critical Care Obstetrics, 5^th edition, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins in February 2025, and received the Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Award for Distinguished Career in Nursing presented by the VUSN Alumni Association during the school's annual awards ceremony in 2024. She is founder of Clinical Concepts in Obstetrics in Scottsdale, Arizona.
• Elizabeth Burgess-Dowdell, BSN’84, received the 2023 Villanova University Outstanding Faculty Research Award, the highest award bestowed to a Villanova faculty member for outstanding accomplishments in scholarly research, and was published in the Journal of the Academy of Forensic Nursing. She is a professor and coordinator of undergraduate research at Villanova’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing in Pennsylvania.
• Debbie Dunn Gregory, BSN’84, served as Distinguished Alumni Speaker at VUSN’s pinning ceremony in May 2025, and was interviewed by Nurse Leader in June in a feature about her career. She was inducted as fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2023. Debbie is principal of healthcare innovation consulting at Smith Seckman Reid in Nashville and a member of the Clemson University Academy of Nursing Excellence in Design.
• Anne Kearny Hardin, BSN’84, was named to Marquis Who's Who in July 2025. She is director of the Welcome Garden, a community supported agriculture farm in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, founded in collaboration with the Center for Contemplative Justice and the Saint Augustine’s Justice Salon.
• Dana Sydow Johnson, BSN’84, received the Award for Clinical Achievement in Nursing from the VUSN Alumni Association at its annual awards ceremony in November 2025.
• Mimi Severt Maulella, BSN’84, is a certified nurse midwife at The Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York (2024).
• Laurie Culbertson Nichol, BSN’84, of Marietta, Georgia, passed away December 20, 2023.
• Cole Powers, BSN’80, MSN’84, received the VUSN Award for Faculty Achievement and was published in the Journal of Nursing Education, both in 2023. She is an assistant professor at VUSN.
• Robin Rosen Schuman, BSN’84, is owner and chief executive officer of Fairview Medical-Legal Consulting in New York City. She founded the company after serving 17 years as in-house medical consultant for Aaronson, Rappaport, Feinstein and Deutsch in NYC, where she received the Employee of the Year Award (2025).

• Amy Blevins, BSN’85, is director of orthopedic and gender alignment surgery service lines at MarinHealth Medical Center in San Francisco (2023).
• Cindy Comer Borum, BSN’85, was a presenter at the inaugural Nursing Research Day hosted by HCA Healthcare and Galen College of Nursing in Nashville in May 2025, and was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in October. She is co-author of “The Evidence Pyramid: Tools and Tips for Evaluating the Evidence,” published in Tennessee Nurse, and “Measures of Success: Making the Case for Advanced Practice-sensitive Quality Indicators,” in the HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine, both in 2024. Cindy is assistant vice president for the clinical services group at HCA in Nashville, and board member of the Tennessee Nurses Foundation.
• Laura Pembridge Currie, BSN’85, served as overall chair for VUSN’s Reunion celebration held in November 2025.
• Mary Beth Watson Gass, BSN’85, was featured in The Free Lance-Star in 2023 in a story about a child who crafted a unique doll.
• Amanda Murphy, BSN’85, is a certified nurse-midwife at Mountain Area Health Education Center’s OB/GYN Specialists in Asheville, North Carolina (2023).
• Angela Prestia, MSN’85, was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2024, and was named to the Florida Atlantic University Hall of Fame in Boca Raton, where she is on faculty.
• Claire Cooper Rebouche, BSN’85, was named chair of the Independence Bowl Foundation board of directors in 2024.
• Elizabeth Rudolph, BSN’82, MSN’85, JD’89, was keynote presenter at the University of Southern Indiana Nursing Leadership Conference in April 2025, presenting, “How to Reduce Your Liability: For Nursing Leaders,” and “Surefire Documentation Techniques for Nursing Leaders,” and a panelist for “From Nurse to Entrepreneur: VUSN Alumni Share Their Stories,” in 2023, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum. She is founder and chief executive officer of JurexNurse.com professional certification for legal nurse consultants and a public speaker, living near Memphis.
• Michele Salisbury, MSN’85, of Littleton, Colorado, and Bowling Green, Kentucky, passed away May 2, 2025.

• Nancy Anness, MSN’86, was a panelist for “Nurses Who Make A Difference,” in 2024 as part of VUSN’s Nurses Month celebration. She was interviewed by WSMV in Nashville in 2023 for “Lack of Health Insurance Impacts Thousands of Tennesseans,” and featured in the Nashville Business Journal in “Women of Influence: Nancy Anness, Ascension Saint Thomas.” Nancy is chief advocacy officer at Ascension Saint Thomas in Nashville.
• Judith La Gorce Bright, BSN’86, was featured in NFocus Magazine in 2024 in “Judith Bright Shines: Navigating Nearly Two Decades of Change in Nashville Has Left the Brand and Its CEO Stronger Than Ever,” and in StyleBlueprint in “The Top Jewelers in Nashville.”
• Leslie Jeter, BSN’86, presented at a VUSN-hosted event in 2024 to celebrate Vanderbilt University’s sesquicentennial She is a senior clinical instructor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta.
• Sharon Hicks Little, BSN’86, MSN’88, wrote about the Tennessee Nurses Foundation, of which she is president, in 2024 in Tennessee Nurse.
• Karen Ramos McCarty, BSN’86, MSN’92, received the Excellence in Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center for 2023.
• Melanie Hall Morris, BSN’83, MSN’86, co-presented, “Transformational Change: Our Journey to Caring Science at Vanderbilt School of Nursing,” hosted in March 2025 by the International Association for Human Caring, and was featured by the DAISY Foundation in its website spotlight in April. She co-presented, “Integrating Well-being into a Pre-licensure Nursing Clinical Judgement Course Series,” at the National Summit on Promoting Well-Being and Resilience in Healthcare Professionals in 2024. Melanie is an assistant professor at VUSN.
• Daphne Stannard, BSN’86, is an associate professor at San Francisco State University’s School of Nursing (2024).
• Anita Wilson, BS’81, BSN’86, is executive director of clinical informatics at Valley Children's Hospital in San Diego. She is a fellow of both the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, and volunteers at equine therapy organizations (2023).

• Leanne Crabtree Busby, MSN’87, who passed away in 2022, was posthumously honored with the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Legacy Award in 2023 at the organization’s national conference. She had been director of the VUSN family NP specialty for seven years, led the opening of the Vine Hill Community Clinic in Nashville, and was honored as a Top 100 Leader during the school’s Centennial in 2008.
• Cathy Headrick Fiacco, BSN’87, was featured on com in 2024, for organizing a lung cancer awareness day at Girls Preparatory School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She is a registered nurse in Atlanta.
• Nan Troiano, MSN’87, is lead author of the book, AWHONN's High Risk & Critical Care Obstetrics, 5^th edition, published by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins in February 2025.

• Mary McLaughlin Gibbs, BSN’88, MSN’90, DNP’24, was promoted to assistant professor in the department of family and community health at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia (2025).
• Beth Hendrix Nicholson, BSN’88, of Nashville passed away April 16, 2024.
• Linda Oakley, MSN’88, is director of the Maury Regional Occupational Health facility in Columbia, Tennessee (2023).
• Jenny Sandlin Sauls, MSN’88, was interviewed by Nursing Extra about the nursing shortage in 2024 in its Tennessee Nursing News section. She is a professor at Middle Tennessee State University School of Nursing in Murfreesboro.
• Patti Schenk Scott, BSN’88, MSN’92, received the Most Supportive Alumna Award from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis in 2024, and was published in the American Journal of Perinatology in 2023. She is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Public Health Nurse Leader program.

• Beth Chatham, BSN’74, MSN’89, was promoted to nursing program director of Cumberland University’s Jeannette C. Rudy School of Nursing and Health Professions in Lebanon, Tennessee, in 2024.
• Trey Early, BSN’89, MSN’90, joined Jackson Purchase Medical Center in Mayfield, Kentucky, in 2023, as a certified registered nurse anesthetist and nonsurgical pain management specialist.
• Judy Thompson Jones, MSN’89, is a family nurse practitioner in her private practice in Waynesboro, Tennessee (2023).
• Betsy Babb Kennedy, BSN’89, MSN’93, was appointed to the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education Accreditation review team in May 2025 and was named a distinguished fellow of the National Academies of Practice in the fall. She received a shout-out in 2024 in Tennessee Nurse. In 2023, she was inducted into the inaugural class of fellows for the Association of Women’s Health and Obstetrics Nurses, became a National League for Nursing Academy of Nursing Education fellow, and received the Lulu Wolf Hassenplug Award for Distinguished Career in Nursing from the VUSN Alumni Association during the school’s annual awards ceremony.
• Sandy Leake, MSN’89, is one of 23 nurse executives invited to attend a meeting of the Chief Nursing Officer Council hosted by Get Well in 2024. She was inducted as fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2023, and featured in Becker’s Hospital Review in “153 Hospital and Health System Chief Nursing Officers to Know,” that year. Sandy is senior vice president and CNO of the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
• Patricia McGuinness, MSN’89, of Brentwood, Tennessee, passed away July 26, 2025.