Class Notes – Spring 2010

40s

Eunice Moe Brock, BSN ’41, is writing a book, “Search for a World View that Will Harmonize Science and Religion,” about her years living and working in China.
Martha Crews McBurney, BSN ’47A, is a retired professional who enjoys traveling with her husband.

Bess Winchester Isaacs, BSN ‘47B, enjoys working at the family hardware store 50 hours a week.

50s

Florence Rogers Van Arnam, BSN ’52, has been curator of the Robb House Medical Museum in Gainesville, Fla., for 28 years. She has consulted on a new medical museum for Edison College in Fort Myers, and received a Historic Preservation award from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Peggye Guess Lassiter, BSN ’57, MSN ’62, is enjoying retirement with husband, Robert, in Lorton, Va.

Carolyn McKelvey Moore, BSN ’57, MSN ’59, recently retired from a 52-year career in health, higher education and philanthropy.

60s

Elizabeth Curtis Cook, BSN ’60, and husband, Joe (M ’64), have relocated to Chapel Hill, N.C., after spending 25 years in New York. They have three daughters and six grandchildren.

Phoebe Giffen Hood, BSN ’60, is a part-time nurse practitioner in a primary care office, and runs a bed & breakfast out of her home all year. She has 12 grandchildren.

Ellen Durham Davis, BSN ’63, was designated as a 2009 Fellow in the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and has been a Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist at Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C., for 32 years.

Carrol Ann M. Smith, BSN ’64, visited Xi’an, China, to teach public health to a group of graduate nursing students at Jiaotong University, part of the country’s efforts to revamp its health care system.

Connie Keith Reid, BSN ’65, retired three years ago and spends time on hobbies, volunteering and traveling.

Patricia Clinard Sutherland, BSN ’65, retired in September 2009, after 35 years in mental health nursing. She lives with her husband, Pete (BA ’65), in Nashville.

Karen Fishman, BSN ’68, is a proud, one-year survivor of breast cancer. She works as a nurse in the Child Sexual Abuse Clinic at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis.

Sandra Jones Campbell, BSN ’69, gave the keynote speech for the 100th anniversary of the Florida Nurses Association, entitled “Nightingale on Nursing Now,” while dressed as Florence Nightingale.

70s

Betsy Weil Spomer, BSN ’70, MSN ’71, lives in Boise, Idaho, with her husband, Ron, and has spent the past 23 years as a flight nurse for Life Flight.

Cheryl Cox, MSN ’72, is a faculty member in the Department of Epidemiology, Cancer Prevention and Control at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. She has been awarded two RO1 grants and one R21.

Vicki Schwartz Beaver, BSN ’73, is executive director of Nurses for Newborns of Tennessee, which received the “Making a Difference” Award from the Center for Nonprofit Management. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.

Sherry Bratton Leffers, BSN ’73, continues to work on many community projects in Tampa, Fla., including the Tampa Museum of Art, Henry B. Plant Park and Faith Café.

Brenda Thomas Harris, BSN ’73, and her husband, Richard, moved from Cincinnati to Tellico Plains, Tenn., in 2007. She volunteers for the local animal shelter and the couple has three grandsons.

Diane Ribblett Settlage, BSN ’73, and her husband, Steve, have lived in Richmond, Va., for 33 years. Diane has been busy raising her children, now adults, and enjoys time with her two grandchildren.

Marie Hall Smith, BSN ’74, chairs the Nursing Advisory Council for the University of Texas in San Antonio School of Nursing, is a Texas Lutheran University regent and volunteers with Haven for Hope. She has two grandchildren.

Ginny Place Myer, BSN ’75, and her husband, Chuck, (A&S ’75), are the general chairs for Reunion 2010 and invite everyone to come back to campus to reconnect with classmates Oct. 21-23.

Fern Tate Richie, BSN ’75, MSN ’83, received her Master of Theological Studies from the Vanderbilt Divinity School in 2006. She has a private psychotherapy practice, precepts students, teaches part-time at Lipscomb University and has started a three-year writing program at the Washington Center for Pyschoanalysis.

Carol Caine Guess, BSN ’76, MSN, is working for Alexian Brothers in their geriatric clinic in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Chris Benz Smith, BSN ’76, is coordinator of the Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Nursing and works in University Health Services, which developed a new model for university campus health care.  She traveled in February with the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.

Anne Atkinson Peterson, BSN ’77, MSN ’93, is founder/president of Your Healthcare Partner, in Nashville, which works with elderly clients. She sits on the boards of the Tennessee Organization of Nurse Executives and the Middle Tennessee Kidney Foundation. She lives with her husband and son, Will.

Terri Conant Taylor, BSN ’77, retired from the Army Reserve in 2005, after 28 years of service. She is becoming credentialed to have her own panel of family practice patients. She and her husband have two sons.

Nancy Hutches Bowers, BSN ’78, works for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine developing and implementing online continuing education for physicians, nurses and allied professionals.  She and her husband, Kerry, (BE ’78) have three children.

Rita Moffat Krolak, MSN ’79, is a research coordinator of the Pregnancy Health Interview Study at Boston University. She and her husband, Pat, have three children and two grandchildren.

80s

Stephanie Davis Burnett, BSN ’81, is the advanced nurse
coordinator at the University of Alabama, Birmingham University Hospital’s safe patient handling program and rehabilitation nursing division. She is a certified clinical nurse specialist and enrolled in the DNP program at UAB. She is pictured here with her two grandchildren.

Chris Skinner Fox, BSN ’80, is pursuing her DNP at Rocky Mountain University for Health Professions while working and traveling as a CRNA.  She has three children.

Debra Fox-Howard, BSN ’81, MSN ’84, is retired and lives with her husband and son in Northern Connecticut.

Scott Howell, MSN ’81, is retired from the State of Georgia Dept. of Human Resources and welcomed his first grandchild in April 2009.

Catherine Gamble Mezmar, MSN ’81, is Chief of Quality Management for the Veterans Administration – Texas Valley Coastal Bend region. She serves on boards of the Texas Medical Auditors Association and the American Association of Medical Audit Specialists. Her husband, Michael Mezmar, MSN ’81, is a financial adviser and analyst in Harlingen, Texas.

Meredith Happ Weintraub, BSN ’81, has worked for 25 years at Children’s Hospital inBirmingham, Ala. – 23 years as a nurse practitioner in the pediatric oncology division.  She and husband, Gary, have three teenage boys – twins Eric and Brian (12) and Alex (15).

Melissa Ottenville Winsor, BSN ’81, is a Certified Registered Nurse First Assistant in Atlanta.  She remarried in 2006 and started her own first assisting company in 2007.  She and her husband have two children

Julie Bomberger Lindley, BSN ’83, was promoted to Director of Health Services, Health & Physical Education for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Texas.

Mary “Meme” Barham Johnson, BSN ’84, MSN, (center) is a
long-term care consultant in Northeast Louisiana and president of The University of Louisiana at Monroe School of Nursing, Lamda Mu Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), recipient of the 2009 Chapter Key Award.

April Jackson Dumon, MSN ’84, coordinates the Nurse Residency Program for new graduates and the nursing clinical advancement for St. Vincent Health Systems in Little Rock, Ark. She is married and has a daughter.

Sheryl Jackson, MSN ’84, joined Vanderbilt’s orthopaedic/ urology service as a staff nurse, after working as a nursing educator in Turkey for 16 years.

Robin Rosen Schuman, BSN ’84, is a senior medical consultant for a medical defense law firm in New York City.  She and her husband celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in November.

Amy Blevins
, BSN ’85, just returned from Jimani, Dominican Republic, with an orthopaedic surgical team that assisted Haitian earthquake victims. She lives with her daughter in the San Francisco Bay area and works as an operating room nurse and a nurse practitioner for Ritter Health Center and for Operation Rainbow, a non-profit group which sends orthopaedic surgical teams to Central and South America.

Laurie Howard Gaston, BSN ’86, lives in Pensacola, Fla., with her husband, Dave, and their five children.

Lana Leinbach Yaney, BSN ’86, was re-elected as a reviewer for the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Journal. She has worked as staff CRNA at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., for 18 years and is a clinical instructor for graduate level nurse anesthesia students at Northeastern University.

Leanne Crabtree Busby, MSN ’87, was named director of the Tennessee Regents Online Nursing Degree Program.

Annamarie Geppert Hellebusch
,
BSN ’88, MSN ’90, and her husband, Stroud (A&S ’87), welcomed their second daughter, Grace Elizabeth on Nov. 25, 2009, joining big sister, Morgan.

Ron Smith, BSN ’88, retired from the Veterans Administration in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 2000. He and his wife, Barbara, have two children and enjoy their houseboat on Center Hill Lake.

Susan Johnson Mayer, MSN ’89, completed her EdD in Higher Education Leadership, minor in Healthcare Education at Nova Southeastern University in May 2009. Her dissertation  was titled: “Effects of Gender Roles on Male Associate Degree Nursing Students.” She is on faculty at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Ariz.

Suzanne Knubel Vincent, BSN ’89, MSN, MPH, has worked at the National Institutes of Health, as a medical missionary and as a PNP in Hematology/Oncology. She and her husband married in 2004, and recently adopted twin girls from China. They reside in Falls Church, Va.

90s

Susan Braun Duggar, MSN ’91, is the vice president of Nursing/Chief Nursing Officer at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, the only hospital in South Carolina that has met the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet Designation for nursing excellence.

Anna Eubanks Pearce, MSN ’91, is a medical review specialist at First Acceptance Services. She was recently married to Douglas Pearce, M.D. (PB ’90), who is the medical director for the Comprehensive Heart Failure and Transplant Program at Saint Thomas Heart Institute.

Jan Brach, MSN ’92, is working on a book, “A Place Called Berry Hill: Tales by the Kids Who Lived There in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” a collection of first-person memories by 17 storytellers.

Karen Kraft Hummel, MSN ’93, works at the county hospital’s urgent care clinic in Greenfield, Ind., as a family nurse practitioner.  She has three children – Heather (9), Nathan (7) and Peter (3).

Kristin Metcalf-Wilson, MSN ’93, is on faculty at the University of Missouri, practices general gynecology at Planned Parenthood and serves on the board of the Women’s Policy Alliance. She has two sons and is pursuing her DNP.

Jane Worley, MSN ’93, is in private practice in New Hampshire, teaches at UMass School of Nursing and consults with the State of Vermont. She lives with her husband and son, Benjamin, adopted from Kazakhstan three years ago.

Susan Hargrove, MSN ’94, works at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Tenn., in the Ob/Gyn resident clinic. She is planning an October wedding to Chris Hutchinson.

Frances Likis, DrPh, MSN ’94, CNM, received the prestigious 2009 Kitty Ernst Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Bridget M. Wilson, MSN ’94, has worked at UC Davis Medical Center, Department of Neurological Surgery in Sacramento, Calif., for the last 10 years.  She has a 24-year-old son.

Karen Kress, MSN ’95, published “Serotonin Syndrome” in the Oct. 2008 edition of Advance for Nurse Practitioners.  She works at Emory Healthcare at Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital in Atlanta.

Connie Cherosky-Miller, MSN ’97, finished a three-week fellowship in Underserved Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine in September 2009, the first class that accepted non-physicians.

Jennifer Hannagan Kim, MSN ’97, a VUSN faculty member, published “Assessment of Safe Living for Seniors” in the July/August 2009 issue of The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.

Stephanie Wallace, MSN ’97, completed her post-masters in FNP at University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Larry Crockett, MSN ’98, and his wife, Holly, live in Franklin, Tenn. The couple welcomed their second child, Jamie Lyn, on Sept. 30, 2009, to the delight of big sister, Jessica Grace.

Jessica Manke Dieseldorff, MSN ’98, is lead clinician at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Watsonville, Calif.  She is one of 60 advanced practice clinicians being trained to perform first-trimester abortions as part of a University of California San Francisco research project that seeks to demonstrate mid-level clinicians can perform early abortions as safely as physicians can.

Meredith Schrader Florentz
, MSN ’98, works in labor and delivery in Maplewood, Minn. She and her husband have twins, both with special needs.

Tracey Robinson Harris, MSN ’98, opened Apogee Elite Laser in July 2008, in Nashville, after working in The Laser and Skin Surgery Center in New York for several years.  She has two children: Laura (5) and Gardner (2).

Amy Butler La Frenz, MSN ’98, works as a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner at the Women’s Care Center at Pinehurst Surgical in Pinehurst, N.C. She and her husband, Matt, are parents to Jake (7) and Brooke (5).

Pat Walker Cooper, MSN ’99, earned her DNP in May 2009, from Case Western Reserve University, after working in long-term care consulting and earning her hospice and palliative care nurse practitioner certification. She is an advanced practice nurse at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset, Ky.

Mary Katherine White, MSN ’99, is the Medical Director for Camp Kudzu, a camp for children from throughout Georgia who have type 1 diabetes.

2000s

Gary L. Grover, MSN ’00, recently retired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons after 20 years of government service.  He also worked for Memphis Lung Physicians.

Adriana Kain Kinn, MSN ’00, is the nurse practitioner for a Naples, Fla., physician who focuses on medical weight loss and preventive medicine.  She and her husband, Tim, married in 2006, and have two children.

Teresa Diane Buck, MSN ’01, married Richard Jason Kee on Feb. 13, in Jackson, Tenn. The couple reside in Lewisburg, Tenn.

Jacky Eldon Carver Jr., MSN ’01, was appointed by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen to the Tennessee Medical Examiner Advisory Council and serves as vice-chairman of the Board of Directors of the Smith County Help Center.  He is also on the Advisory Council of the Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency.

Kim Vernier, MSN ’01, works at the Middle Tennessee Medical Center and Baptist Hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn., with patients who have diabetes. She and her family have a new home after her home was destroyed by the April 10, 2009, tornado in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Ashley Christine Walters Falls, MSN ’02, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner near Charlotte, N.C.  She and her husband welcomed son, Maxwell “Max,” on Jan. 2, 2009.

Caroline Portis-Jenkins, MSN ’02, and her husband, Aaron, welcomed second child, Clayton Aaron, on March 20, 2009.  He joins big sister, Margo.

Jason Boylan, MSN ’03, and business partner, Rob Mabry, M.D., opened, 3rd and Church Healthcare, in Nashville, which combines urgent and chiropractic care in one facility.

Whitney Simmons Wormer, MSN ’03, left, Roberta Bradley, center, and Ellen Gentry, right, are members of the VUSN Alumni team for the Country Music Marathon held in Nashville each year. Team training is open to all VUSN alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends. The team meets every Saturday morning for a training run at different locations in Davidson and Williamson counties. This year’s race will be held April 24. For information, e-mail alumninursing@vanderbilt.edu

Tanya Sorrell, MSN ’03, has been accepted as a fellow in the ANA’s Minority Fellowship Pre-Doctoral Program starting this fall at University of Alabama.

Ty Williams, MSN ’03, finished a Post-Master’s Certificate at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Nursing in the Family Nurse Practitioner Specialty and is now dual certified as an acute care nurse practitioner and a family nurse practitioner.

Tana Coleman, MSN ’04, moved to Orlando, Fla., with her husband, Keith, and daughter, Ana. She works as an acute care nurse practitioner in the Emergency Department for Florida Emergency Physicians, who cover all the emergency departments for the Florida Hospital System.

Nicole Demetriou, MSN ’04, is a family nurse practitioner in a Tampa retail clinic and is pursuing her PhD/MPH in applied anthropology/global health practice at the University of South Florida. She also helped train midwives in Liberia with Peace Corps Response in 2009.

Terri McLeroy Hartman, MSN ’04, is a manager in the Privacy Office at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which oversees health record privacy and protected health information.

Jennifer Hicks, MSN ’04, teaches in the VUSN pre-specialty program, and was appointed Coordinator of the Lipscomb/Vanderbilt Partnership Program in November 2009.

Beth Barry, MSN ’05, married Matthew Whitworth on Dec. 20, 2009, at Amelia Island, Fla.

Amanda Decker, MSN ’05, lives in Fairview, Tenn., with her husband, Tim, and son, Griffin Lee, born April 20, 2009. She is a nurse practitioner with University Community Health Services at the Dickson Co. Schools Family Clinic.

Kristin Eckland, MSN ’05, had a case study, “Skin Necrosis in a Cancer Patient,” presented by Advance for Nurse Practitioners in December 2009.

Caroline Harris, MSN ’05, is a suicide prevention nurse practitioner at the Nashville and Murfreesboro Veteran’s Administration hospitals. She and her husband, Joe, have two sons:  Jack (9) and Finn (2).

Lisa Hoopes, MSN ’05, and Trey Holloway, (BA ’06) are planning to marry on July 31 in Washington, D.C.

Cynthia Malowitz, MSN ’05, received a post-graduate certification as a family nurse practitioner from UT-Houston.  She is owner/president of the newly opened Bay Area Quick Care, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Victor Czerkasij, MSN ’06, was published in The Nurse Practitioner on dermal fillers, The Clinician Review regarding Hansen’s disease, a series on women’s skin issues in Women of Spirit, and is an associate lecturer with Fitzgerald Health Education Associates.  He is also a member of the National Conference for Nurse Practitioner Planning Committee.

Dorothy J. Dunn, MSN ’06, earned her PhD, in December 2009, from the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University (FAU). Her dissertation work: “What Keeps Nurses in Nursing: A Heideggerian Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study.”

Bethany Massey, MSN ’06, recently became the Director of Health Services at Lipscomb University in Nashville and is the first nurse practitioner at the university.

Maryann “Sharma” McAlwee, MSN ’06, is an instructor at University of Central Florida. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and hopes to be cancer-free by the end of 2010.

Sherry Miller, MSN ’06, completed a post-master’s family nurse practitioner program and is working at Saint Thomas Health Services, in Nashville, setting up heart failure clinics in outlying areas.

David M. Haggard II, MSN ’07, graduated from the University of Missouri Kansas City with a DNP in December 2009.

Melissa Moore, MSN ’07, welcomed her third child, Austin Blaine Moore, on Sept. 1, 2009.

Lauren Pearce Smalley, MSN ’07, and her husband, Patrick, married in March 2009. They live in Dallas, Texas, where Lauren is a Neurosurgery Nurse Practitioner at Parkland Hospital/UT Southwestern.

Jessica VanMeter, MSN ’07, works in the Regional Burn Center at VUMC. She recently traveled to Ireland and Scotland and has trips to Haiti and Austria planned in 2010.

Keith Adkins, MSN ’08, joined Louisville Heart Specialists at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky., and welcomed daughter, Addison Jules Adkins, on Nov. 4, 2009.

Susan Dawson, ’08, earned her post master’s in the psychiatric nurse practitioner specialty and was recently promoted to Vice Chancellor at Allen College in Waterloo, Iowa.

Angel R. Epstein, MSN ’08, works at a community mental health center in Daytona Beach, Fla.  She recently attended the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in Las Vegas and APNA Clinical Psychopharmacology Institute Conference in Reston, Va.

Stephanie Fisher, MSN ’08, works as an advanced registered nurse practitioner at Steck Medical Clinic, a family practice and urgent care center in Chehalis, Wash.

Amber Avara Fountain, MSN ’08, works at Central State Hospital in the forensics unit. She recently married her husband, Chip.

Michelle Deal Cantwell, MSN ’09, married Timothy Cantwell one week after passing her ANCC certification

Laurie B. Ford, MSN ’08, shown above at VUSN’s graduation, joined VUMC’s SICU. She is the mother of four daughters, the last born just before her School of Nursing graduation.

Mary Fuller-Fougerousse, MSN ’09, relocated to Tucson, Ariz., and works at Southeastern Arizona Behavioral Health Services. She is opening her own private practice in the spring.

Jessica Marie Harvell, MSN ’09, is a licensed acute care nurse practitioner in Missouri.

Lindsey Cox Johnson, MSN ’09, works as a nurse practitioner at Pediatric ENT Associates of the Children’s Health System of Alabama.

Karin Kellerman, MSN ’09, is a Hospitalist CRNP (the title for any nurse practitioner in Pennsylvania) at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. She got married
in March.

Lauren Lee Ryan, MSN ’08, is the Clinical Coordinator of the Interpregnancy Care Project at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss. She married her high school sweetheart, Brant, in August 2009.

Lisa Marie Pearson, MSN ’09, works as the Assistant Director of Nursing at South Davis Community Hospital in Bountiful, Utah.

Angela Rowe, MSN ’08, works in the Pediatric ICU at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She and her husband welcomed their first child, Brayden Allen Rowe, on Dec. 28, 2009.

Allison Courtney Schaefer, MSN ’09, is an advanced registered nurse practitioner at Interventional re nurse practitioner and a family nurse practitioner.

In Memoriam

Florence Burns Hilsenbeck, BSN ’40, died Feb. 18, 2009 in Spanish Fort, Ala.

Suzanna Wiesehan Hershey, attended 1945, died Nov. 21, 2008, in Nashville.

Cecyle Kennedy Hopkins, BSN ’47, died Aug. 7, 2009, in Albany, Ga.

Edna Russell Byrd, BSN ’47A, died Oct. 25, 2009, in Tyler, Texas.

Eoto Russell Stokes, BSN ‘47A, died Feb. 1, 2009, in Tucson, Ariz.

Ann Michalesko, BSN ’47B, died May 30, 2009, in Arlington, Heights, Ill.

Josephine Rogers Engler, BSN ‘47B, died March 15, 2009, in Augusta, Ga.

Adrah Pixley Lyon, BSN ’48, died June 13, 2009, in Shreveport, La.

Gloria Drake Stahlman, BSN ’48, died June 22, 2009, in Nashville.

Sarah Dilworth Palmer, BSN ’55, died April 29, 2009, in Richmond, Va.

Mary G. Coward, BSN ’59, died Dec. 7, 2009, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Ruth L. Saylor, BSN ’59, died on January 24, 2010, in Independence, Ohio.

Dorothy Culpepper Buoni, BSN ’60, died Sept. 20, 2009, in Merritt Island, Fla.

Col. Linda Schroeder, BSN ’65, died May 19, 2009, in Loveland, Colo.

Sarah Brooke, BSN ’69, died March 2, 2009, in Metairie, La.

Nancy Mauer Splinter, BSN ’69, died Nov. 13, 2009, in San Diego, Calif.

Mary Ella Brentlinger, BSN ’78, died Oct. 23, 2009, in Eugene, Ore.

Elizabeth Krebs, BSN ’79, died July 11, 2009, in Nashville.

Nancy Crawford LeSac, BSN ’79, died Jan. 19, 2009, in Richmond, Va.

Lori Lucero, BSN ’83, died June 21, 2009, in Norfolk, Va.

Elisabeth Vance McElroy, BSN ’83, died Oct. 27, 2009, in Birmingham, Ala.

Robert Stanley Adams, MSN ’91, died Oct. 26, 2009, in Nashville.

Ruth Humphreys Harkreader, MSN ’92, died Oct. 14, 2009, in Brentwood, Tenn.

Julie Shahin Caruso, MSN ’94, died Nov. 3, 2009, in Kingston Springs, Tenn.

Vicki Stalmasek Perencevic, MSN ’94, died Feb. 27, 2009, in Nashville.

Christina Little Monroe, MSN ‘95, died May 31, 2009, in Allen, Texas.

Nancy Holbrook Wright, MSN ’97, died Feb. 21, 2009, in Jackson, Tenn.

SEND ALUMNI NEWS AND PICTURES TO
Susan Shipley
Alumni Relations Director
Vanderbilt University
2525 West End Ave., Suite 450
Nashville, TN 37203
susan.shipley@vanderbilt.edu
(615) 936-3046

Carol Caine Guess, BSN ’76, MSN, is working for Alexian Brothers in their geriatric clinic in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Chris Benz Smith, BSN ’76, is coordinator of the Family Nurse Practitioner Concentration at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga School of Nursing and works in University Health Services, which developed a new model for university campus health care.  She traveled in February with the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti.

Anne Atkinson Peterson, BSN ’77, MSN ’93, is founder/president of Your Healthcare Partner, in Nashville, which works with elderly clients. She sits on the boards of the Tennessee Organization of Nurse Executives and the Middle Tennessee Kidney Foundation. She lives with her husband and son, Will.

Terri Conant Taylor, BSN ’77, retired from the Army Reserve in 2005, after 28 years of service. She is becoming credentialed to have her own panel of family practice patients. She and her husband have two sons.

Nancy Hutches Bowers, BSN ’78, works for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine developing and implementing online continuing education for physicians, nurses and allied professionals.  She and her husband, Kerry, (BE ’78) have three children.

Rita Moffat Krolak, MSN ’79, is a research coordinator of the Pregnancy Health Interview Study at Boston University. She and her husband, Pat, have three children and two grandchildren.

80s

Stephanie Davis Stephanie Davis Burnett, BSN ’81, is the advanced nurse
coordinator at the University of Alabama, Birmingham University Hospital’s safe patient handling program and rehabilitation nursing division. She is a certified clinical nurse specialist and enrolled in the DNP program at UAB. She is pictured here with her two grandchildren.

Chris Skinner Fox, BSN ’80, is pursuing her DNP at Rocky Mountain University for Health Professions while working and traveling as a CRNA.  She has three children.

Debra Fox-Howard, BSN ’81, MSN ’84, is retired and lives with her husband and son in Northern Connecticut.

Scott Howell, MSN ’81, is retired from the State of Georgia Dept. of Human Resources and welcomed his first grandchild in April 2009.

Catherine Gamble Mezmar, MSN ’81, is Chief of Quality Management for the Veterans Administration – Texas Valley Coastal Bend region. She serves on boards of the Texas Medical Auditors Association and the American Association of Medical Audit Specialists. Her husband, Michael Mezmar, MSN ’81, is a financial adviser and analyst in Harlingen, Texas.

Meredith Happ Weintraub, BSN ’81, has worked for 25 years at Children’s Hospital inBirmingham, Ala. – 23 years as a nurse practitioner in the pediatric oncology division.  She and husband, Gary, have three teenage boys – twins Eric and Brian (12) and Alex (15).

Melissa Ottenville Winsor, BSN ’81, is a Certified Registered Nurse First Assistant in Atlanta.  She remarried in 2006 and started her own first assisting company in 2007.  She and her husband have two children.

Julie Bomberger Lindley, BSN ’83, was promoted to Director of Health Services, Health & Physical Education for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District in Texas.

Mary BarhamMary “Meme” Barham Johnson, BSN ’84, MSN, (center) is a
long-term care consultant in Northeast Louisiana and president of The University of Louisiana at Monroe School of Nursing, Lamda Mu Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), recipient of the 2009 Chapter Key Award.

April Jackson Dumon, MSN ’84, coordinates the Nurse Residency Program for new graduates and the nursing clinical advancement for St. Vincent Health Systems in Little Rock, Ark. She is married and has a daughter.

Sheryl Jackson, MSN ’84, joined Vanderbilt’s orthopaedic/ urology service as a staff nurse, after working as a nursing educator in Turkey for 16 years.

Robin Rosen Schuman, BSN ’84, is a senior medical consultant for a medical defense law firm in New York City.  She and her husband celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in November.

Amy Blevins
, BSN ’85, just returned from Jimani, Dominican Republic, with an orthopaedic surgical team that assisted Haitian earthquake victims. She lives with her daughter in the San Francisco Bay area and works as an operating room nurse and a nurse practitioner for Ritter Health Center and for Operation Rainbow, a non-profit group which sends orthopaedic surgical teams to Central and South America.

Laurie Howard Gaston, BSN ’86, lives in Pensacola, Fla., with her husband, Dave, and their five children.

Lana Leinbach Yaney, BSN ’86, was re-elected as a reviewer for the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Journal. She has worked as staff CRNA at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, Mass., for 18 years and is a clinical instructor for graduate level nurse anesthesia students at Northeastern University.

Leanne Crabtree Busby, MSN ’87, was named director of the Tennessee Regents Online Nursing Degree Program.

Annamarie Geppert Hellebusch,
BSN ’88, MSN ’90, and her husband, Stroud (A&S ’87), welcomed their second daughter, Grace Elizabeth on Nov. 25, 2009, joining big sister, Morgan.

Ron Smith, BSN ’88, retired from the Veterans Administration in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 2000. He and his wife, Barbara, have two children and enjoy their houseboat on Center Hill Lake.

Susan Johnson Mayer, MSN ’89, completed her EdD in Higher Education Leadership, minor in Healthcare Education at Nova Southeastern University in May 2009. Her dissertation  was titled: “Effects of Gender Roles on Male Associate Degree Nursing Students.” She is on faculty at Glendale Community College in Glendale, Ariz.

Suzanne Knubel Vincent, BSN ’89, MSN, MPH, has worked at the National Institutes of Health, as a medical missionary and as a PNP in Hematology/Oncology. She and her husband married in 2004, and recently adopted twin girls from China. They reside in Falls Church, Va.

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