Every VUSN graduate has exciting things happening in her or his life, both professionally and personally. Class Notes – printed twice a year in the Vanderbilt Nurse Magazine and available online on this page – is an opportunity for you to not only learn what other alumni are doing but also share news about your life. We would love to hear what you've been up to! Please contact us with any updates, or call 615-322-4836. And, when posting on social media please tag us! #VUSN

Look below for news from your classmates as of December 31, 2022. Items received since July 1, 2022 are shown in red font.

---

Lindsey Baksh, MSN'07, DNP'19, co-presented, "Trauma-informed Teaching," at VUSN in February 2022. She received the Sara K. Archer Award from students in the VUSN Women's Health Nurse Practitioner specialty in August, and was a panelist for "Trauma and Addiction: Breaking the Cycle for Women," in September, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum. Lindsey co-authored "Opioid Use Disorder Screening for Women across the Lifespan," published in Advances in Family Practice Nursing in May 2021 and was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in June. She co-presented, "Opioid Use Disorder Screening across the Women's Health Lifespan," at the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health annual conference in October and co-authored "Generational Learning Preferences," published in American Nurse in December. Lindsey received the Sara K. Archer Excellence in Teaching Award from students in the WHNP specialty in August 2020. She is a member of the Center of Women's Health Clinic drug dependency group, which received Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Team Award in May 2018. 

Caroline Banes, MSN'07, presented at the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant Critical Care Bootcamp at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in August 2018. 

Tisha Barzyk, MSN'07, DNP'12, is a Nexus legal nurse consultant in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, specializing in the field of wound management and wound care cases, and a wound care consultant for Integumetrix (2018).

Brenda Baxter, MSN'07, is a nurse practitioner specializing in diabetes management at Saint Thomas Medical Group in Nashville (2020).

Susan Beaird, MSN'07, was interviewed by My Southern Health for, "Going Back to School Can Literally Be a Headache," published in August 2022. She received the Sara K. Archer Award in August from students in the VUSN Pediatric Nurse Practitioner-Primary Care specialty, and the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November. Susan was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in June 2021. She was interviewed by My Southern Health in July 2019 for a story about children's headaches triggered when they return to school after summer break, and was highlighted in the VUMC Reporter in May 2016 for a study about family history and concussion recovery.  

Anila Bhimani, MSN'07, is a nurse practitioner at Georgetown Pediatrics in Cumming, Georgia (2020).

Andrea Boohaker, MSN'07, is lead advanced practice provider in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she autonomously evaluates and treats upper extremity trauma injuries, supervises 12 providers and serves on several executive committees to advocate for advanced practice providers across the UAB system (2020).

Amy Brin, MSN'07, was appointed as a member of the National Institutes of Health's National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council in February 2022. She is executive director and chief executive officer of the Child Neurology Foundation, serving families in all 50 states as well as those in more than 70 countries.

Ashley Brouwer, MSN'07, was the speaker at "What's Up Down There?" in March 2021, hosted for the public by Fairbanks Urology in Alaska where she is a nurse practitioner.

Erin Hepper Burrell, BS'06, MSN'07, presented, "Supporting Our Nurses in the Face of Adversity," in June 2021, during the advanced practice grand rounds at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where she is assistant in surgery on the critical care outreach team.

Rochell Sasse Burton, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021.

Ashley Davis Campbell , MSN'07, is a health operations systems consultant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (2016).

Erin Castellano, MSN'07, is an advanced practice registered nurse and board-certified adult nurse practitioner specializing in cardiovascular health at Gross Family Practice in Orangeburg, South Carolina (2020).

Elizabeth Cooper, MSN'07, DNP'11, is an associate professor at the Jeanette C. Rudy School of Nursing and Health Professions at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. She had been dean of the Aquinas College School of Nursing in Nashville (2016).  

Jo Anne Davis, PhD'07, wrote an opinion piece, "Reducing Unexpected Pregnancies Would Diminish Rate of Abortions," published in the Cincinnati Enquirer in June 2022.

Lauren Fincher DeVine, MSN'07, became an assistant in otolaryngology in the pediatric ear, nose and throat clinic at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in August 2017. 

Margo Fortney, MSN'07, is an adult psychiatric nurse practitioner at Alleviant Health Centers in Brentwood, Tennessee (2020).

Jasmine Good Geisinger, BS'03, MSN'07, is a nurse practitioner at VIP Midsouth Children's Clinic, in several locations throughout Middle Tennessee (2020).

Jayme Gibson, MSN'07, presented at the Acute Care Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant Critical Care Bootcamp at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in August 2018. 

Amy Graves, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021.

Diane Johnson, MSN'07, was mentioned in a January 2020 Overton County News (Tennessee) story about Vanderbilt researchers studying noise levels during critical times of surgery, and the impact on patient safety and employee well-being.

Anna Bergman Kirk, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021.

Anne Wolfenden Knight, BS'06, MSN'07, is a nurse practitioner at Heritage Ear, Nose and Throat in Brentwood, Tennessee (2020).

Kevin Krenek , MSN'07, is a family nurse practitioner at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago (2016).

Jacqueline Kunz, MSN'07, is a neonatology hospitalist at HSHS Medical Group in Breese, Illinois (2017). 

Tiffany Latham, MSN'07, DNP'10, was a panelist for "Supporting Nursing Students of Color: Success Strategies from Academia to Practice," in February 2022, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum, and served as co-chair of VUSN's Reunion held in October. She is a nurse practitioner at Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in Falls Church, Virginia.

Jennifer Lorton, MSN'07, is a nurse practitioner specializing in neonatal-perinatal medicine in Oklahoma at Ascension Health's Newborn Specialists of Tulsa (2020).

Megan Manor, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021.

Theresa Wilson Monroe, MSN'07, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Genesis Psychiatric Services in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (2017).

Deonna Moore , MSN'07, PhD'17, is associate nursing officer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Transplant Patient Care Center and Vanderbilt Lung Institute (2018).

Jay Morrison, MSN'07, is co-author of "Using a Learning Health Care System to Advance Nursing and Patient Care," published in Nurse Leader in November 2022.

Ashley Moss, MSN'07, is a women's health nurse practitioner at Womens Group of Franklin, Tennessee (2020).

Robb Nash, MSN'07, PhD'16, was hired in April 2021 as the first executive/medical director of The Village at Glencliff, a medical respite community in Nashville that serves people who would otherwise recover on the street after hospitalization. He co-wrote "Suboptimal HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Awareness and Willingness to Use among Women Who Use Drugs in the United States: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis," published in October 2019 in AIDS and Behavior .

Helen Nation, MSN'07, joined VUSN faculty full time in 2022 as an assistant professor in the neonatal nurse practitioner specialty. She is lead author of "A Quality Improvement Project to Increase Frequency of Skin-to-skin Contact for Extreme Low-birth-weight Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit," published by The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing in July/September 2021.

Jill Nelson, MSN'07, co-presented, "Gaining Insight into the Meaning of Palliative Care," during Vanderbilt University Medical Center's advanced practice grand rounds in October 2022. She was on the faculty of the Palliative Care to You conference in April 2018 at Vanderbilt University, and presented "Integrating Palliative Care into Acute Care," in October 2017 at the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association annual conference. Jill received the March of Dimes Tennessee Chapter Hospice and Palliative Care Nurse of the Year award in December 2016.

Cynthia O'Neal, PhD'07, was named Alumna of the Year by the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Nursing in October 2020. She is associate dean for undergraduate studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and a member of the VUSN Alumni Board.

Natalie Wood Owen, BS'05, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022.

Jacob Page, MSN'07, is an acute care nurse practitioner at Middle Tennessee Internal Medicine Associates in Nashville (2020).

Elizabeth Bumpus Parnell, MSN'07, was named president of the Tennessee Chapter of the International Association of Forensic Nursing in December 2020.

Holly Pierce, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021. She is an assistant in medicine specializing in preventative cardiology.

Samuel Robbins, MTS'01, MSN'07, co-presented, "Gaining Insight into the Meaning of Palliative Care," during Vanderbilt University Medical Center advanced practice grand rounds in October 2022, and received the Patient Experience Award from VUMC in November. He is an assistant in medicine specializing in internal medicine and palliative care.

Rachel Schreier, MSN'07, received the Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in November 2022, and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from VUMC in October 2021. She is an acute care nurse practitioner at Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Medicine.

Jessica Simpson, MSN'07, is a neonatal nurse practitioner at Vanderbilt Children's Neonatology Intensive Care Clinics (2020).

LeTizia Baxter Smith, MSN'07, is featured in the NP Pulse: The Voice of the Nurse Practitioner podcast, "Building an Anti-burnout Work Culture," recorded in March 2022, and co-presented "Advocacy among Underrepresented Faculty Group Leverages Advances in Nursing Workforce Diversity at a Predominantly White Institution," at the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties conference in April. She was invited to serve on the DNPs of Color advisory committee and co-presented about wellness skills for nurse practitioner and patients at the Tennessee Nurse Practitioner Association statewide conference, both in July. She co-presented, "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Psychiatry," at the DNPs of Color conference in October and became co-recipient of a Vanderbilt University Sesquicentennial Grant for "Project SHARE: Sharing Strategies for Academic Faculty and Student Recruitment," in the fall. LeTizia was moderator for "Mental Health and Black America Today: Where Are We?" in February 2021, part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum. She was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in June and is featured in a Nurse Educator Tips for Teaching podcast, "Mentoring Nursing Faculty: Inclusive Scholarship Support Group," posted that month. She was also moderator for "Mental Health and Black America Today: Where Are We? (Part 2)," in July. She co-authored, "Remembering and Honoring Tennessee Nurses Who are Deceased as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic," published in Tennessee Nurse in December. LeTizia earned her doctor of nursing practice at Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta in May 2020. The title of her project is "Improving Organizational Culture and Decreasing Burnout: Leveraging Collaborative Decision-making to Retain Community Mental Health Professionals." She was named to the Center for Teaching Junior Faculty Fellows program at Vanderbilt University in August 2019, and co-authored "Mentoring Nursing Faculty: An Inclusive Scholarship Support Group," published in the September issue of Nurse Educator . LeTizia was named an American Nurses Association Minority Fellowship Doctoral Fellow for 2018-19, and welcomed a baby in October 2017. LeTizia is owner of Silver Lining Psychiatric Consultants and a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner at the Mental Health Cooperative in Nashville, as well as Diversity and Inclusion Committee chair and instructor at VUSN.

Jennie Bowers Stevens, MSN'07, is an assistant in pediatrics at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt (2020).

Tiffany Terrill , MSN'07, is a women's health nurse practitioner in the office of Bruce R. Goodman, MD, TriStar Summit Medical Center, in Hermitage, Tennessee (2016).

Shelley Thibeau, MSN'07, PhD'15, is director of the Mothers' Milk Bank of Louisiana at Ochsner Baptist in New Orleans, providing donor human milk to critically ill infants (2018).

Linda Upchurch, MSN'07, is director of Ogeechee Area Hospice in Statesboro, Georgia (2016).  

Jessica Van Meter, MSN'07, DNP'15, is co-author of "Capacity Building in Low- and Middle-income Countries: The Essentials of Sustainable Education Programs," published in The Nurse Practitioner in August 2022. She and colleagues received Best Abstract Honor at the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies conference for "Capacity Building in Northern Laos: An Evaluation of the Pediatric Nursing Training Program at Laos Friends Hospital for Children," published in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine in November. Jessica was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in June 2021, and shared a Children's Emergency Care Alliance EMS Star of Life Award that month for saving the life of a baby as a Vanderbilt University Medical Center flight nurse. She is co-author of "Development and Implementation of a Trauma Team Education Program in Georgetown, Guyana," published in The Nurse Practitioner in July. Jessica was a panelist for the VUSN Alumni Board's annual DNP Know Your Value in January 2020 and was named coordinator of the global perspectives column for The Nurse Practitioner that June. She presented "Sustainable Emergency Nursing Education in a Global Health Setting," in September at the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health and was interviewed in October by VUMC Reporter about staff from Vanderbilt's Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital and emergency medicine department who provided education in obstetrics and neonatology for all emergency medical services providers in the nation of Guyana. Jessica was a panelist for DNP Know Your Value in January 2019, and co-presented "VUMC Advanced Practice: Making a Difference around the World," at a VUMC advanced practice workshop that October. In 2018, she received VUMC's Inspiring Global Nurse Award and the VUSN Alumni Award for National Leadership presented by the Alumni Association during the school's annual awards ceremony. Jessica and her mother, Jade Van Meter Forlidas, BSN'73, MSN'90, were profiled in the Medical Center's VUMC Voice in November 2017. Jessica co-directs a bachelor's in emergency nursing program for nurses at Georgetown Public Hospital Corp. in Guyana, in collaboration with the University of Guyana and VUMC. She is featured in a podcast, "Global and Public Health," hosted by The Nurse Practitioner .

Rose Vick, MSN'07, co-presented "Designing a Behavioral Health Curriculum for Family Nurse Practitioner Students: Integrated Care Begins in the Classroom," at the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties conference in April 2022, about wellness skills for nurse practitioner and patients at the Tennessee Nurse Practitioner Association conference in July, and a poster at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association meeting in October. She co-presented, "Meeting the Needs of Underserved Populations: Designing Behavioral Health Content for a Family Nurse Practitioner HRSA Training Grant," at the APNA conference in October 2021. She co-authored "Treating Child and Adolescent Depression and Anxiety in Primary Care," and "Treating Child and Adolescent Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Behavioral Disorders in Primary Care," both in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners in September 2020, and welcomed a baby in October. Rose was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in 2019 and presented "Psycho-oncology and the APRN: Integrating Behavioral Health into Cancer Care," during Vanderbilt University Medical Center advanced practice grand rounds that August. In 2018, she received the March of Dimes Tennessee Chapter Nurse of the Year Award for behavioral health, and appeared on the Tennessee Department of Health's "Healthy Parks, Healthy Persons" website, promoting the program. She successfully defended her dissertation, "Meaning Making and Dispositional Mindfulness among Women with Breast Cancer," at the University of Arizona in Tucson that April, for which she received the Mary Opal Wolanin Research Endowment. Rose received the VUSN Dean's Award for Faculty Achievement in Clinical Practice in May 2017.

Hilary Weiss, BS'04, MSN'07, is a women's health nurse practitioner at Saint Thomas Heart in Franklin, Tennessee (2020).