BS, John Carroll University
RN, Case Western Reserve University
MSN, Concentration in Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t think I would be working with children someday. I believe I proclaimed my future a nurse for babies at the age of 8 in my Girl Scout troop. By 12, I was the local babysitter in our town, Pandora, Ohio, population 1,100. Pandora featured Friday night high school football, Saturday Ohio State football, and Sunday Cleveland Browns football.

Although I loved growing up in a small town with family everywhere in sight, I was happy to be an undergraduate at John Carroll University in Cleveland, where I graduated with a BA in biology. Then I entered a Nurse Practitioner program at Case Western Reserve University, where I received my RN and Masters Degree in Pediatrics, and became board certified. I had a dual major in Family Practice, which enables me to be especially attuned to teenagers.

After working at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, I moved to San Francisco, where I have found a real home, even though I am still a Midwestern girl at heart. After working at Lucille Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford with children with many different illnesses, I transferred to University of California at San Francisco, again as an RN, working on a pediatric cardiology transitional care unit. I have continued to work part time at this job after taking a position at Bayside, and it reminds me constantly of the resilience of children when faced with challenges beyond everyday life.

I live in San Francisco with my husband, who travels frequently, and who sometimes takes me with him, to places such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Amsterdam, Western Australia, Mexico, and many cities in the US. Though I love exotic places, I still enjoy the trips back to Ohio, and seeing my younger sister in Chicago. I also enjoy San Francisco cuisine, reading, hiking, camping, biking, kayaking, and everything that gets me outside into adventure!