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.

Laurie Alsentzer, BSN'83, is a physician with Old Harding Pediatric Associates in Nashville (2020).

Leslie Hague Bouton, BSN'83, is in medical operations with MD² in Bellevue, Washington, a group of concierge primary care clinics located across the U.S. (2018).

Katie Kilbane Brennan, BSN'83, MSN'87, received the VUSN Nursing and Health Care Leadership Preceptor of the Year Award in August 2022, and was quoted in a December 2020 VUMC Reporter story about Vanderbilt University Medical Center's biennial Nursing Staff Bylaws Convention, the first to be held virtually. She is co-chair of the Bylaws Task Force and associate nursing officer at the VUMC primary care patient care center.

Annette Stone Isaksen, MSN'83, is self-employed as a board-certified integrative health coach, using assessments and goals to help people feel empowered to make lasting lifestyle choices. She lives in Silverdale, Washington (2018). 

Sally Tucker Jasper, BSN'75, MSN'83, retired in June 2018 after 43 years of nursing. She taught at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon, for 20 years and established the school's simulation lab.

Joanie Laughlin Jeannette, BSN'83, MSN'04, served as moderator of "Compassion Fatigue during COVID-19: How Nurses and NPs Can Stay Grounded," in November 2020, part of the VUSN Dore to Dore Alumni Forum. She was quoted in the VUMC Reporter in August 2017 about patient flow nurses at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Joanie is administrative director of adult inpatient medicine at VUMC and president of the VUSN Alumni Board.

Catherine Price McKnight, BSN'83 , of Jackson, Tennessee, passed away May 29, 2019.

Melanie Hall Morris, BSN'83, MSN'86, was interviewed by The New York Times in late 2021 about the benefits of journaling. The article was republished in March 2022 as part of the paper's Learning Network and was featured in Vanderbilt Magazine in November in "How to Keep a Journal for Self-care." She is lead author of "A Nurse-navigated, Postpartum Support Text Messaging Intervention: Satisfaction among Primiparous Women," published in The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing in October/December 2021. Melanie authored "Write it Out! CPR for the Soul," published in October 2020 in Nursing Clinics . She was promoted to assistant professor at VUSN in 2019 and presented a poster, "A Randomized Controlled Trial of Nurse-navigated Texting Support for Primiparous Women following an Unplanned Cesarean Birth," at the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses conference that June. Melanie successfully defended her dissertation, "Nurse-Navigated Mobile Messaging Support and Primiparous Women's Postpartum Symptom Experience following Unplanned Cesarean Birth," at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in April 2018. In 2015, she was awarded Research Paper of the Year from American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, and was the Scholarly Writing Contest winner from the Tennessee Nurses Foundation.

Lisa Ray Pascale, BSN'83, and her sister, Donna Ray Iverson, BSN'82, are on staff at Wolfson Children's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, in the behavioral health unit (2015). 

Mary Wuertenbaecher Petersen, BSN'83, is heart valve team coordinator at Saint Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, Missouri (2016).

Frances Garcia Prockop, BSN'83, is an attorney and partner with Hall Booth Smith in Tampa, Florida (2022).

Joyce Grimes Safley, BSN'77, MSN'83, was a candidate for judge of the Davidson County General Sessions Court in Tennessee in May 2018. She joined the Law Office of Melinda Jacobs in Franklin as an attorney in August 2016.  

Olivia Miller Smith, BSN'83, was a panelist for "Trauma and Addiction: Breaking the Cycle for Women," part of the VUSN Dore to Door Alumni Forum, in September 2022. She is a personal development coach, as well as founder of Healing Housing and Write a New Story , both in Nashville.

Kathleen Wooldridge Wolff, MSN'83, was leader of a class at the Vanderbilt Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, "Living Well with Chronic Pain: Skills and Practices," in May 2021, and received an Excellence in Patient Experience Award from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in October. She co-authored "The Partnership to Improve Diabetes Education Trial: A Cluster Randomized Trial Addressing Health Communication in Diabetes Care," published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in January 2020. Kathleen presented "Integrative Medicine Therapies to Enhance Health and Well-being," at VUMC in March 2019. She is a nurse practitioner in the Osher Center.