Current Student Profiles

My name is Ann. I work at Providence in Everett (PRMCE) in the Ortho/Neuro unit. I have a BSN from UW Bothell and currently pursuing the DNP in Community Health Nursing. I was born and raised in Kenya. I am married and have two boys. In my free time I like to spend time singing and dancing with my boys. I enjoy photography and travelling (especially before the security issues at the airports).

I’m from Elyria, Ohio, a city that bridges the industrial belt of the great lakes and vast farmland. After graduating with a BS in Communication with a minor in Psychology, I worked in the public health field in Appalachian Ohio, East Timor, Tajikistan, and New York City. Through these crazy and wonderful experiences I decided on a career as a community nurse. I moved to Seattle in 2009, and received my BSN this past summer. Busy as I have been, I have enjoyed the Northwest landscape with biking, hiking, climbing, and camping.

My name is Barbara Hoffman. I was born and grew up in the desert southwest, Yuma, AZ. I went to nursing school at Arizona Western Collage and Point Loma Nazarene University. I have worked in a variety of settings in community health including maternity support services, child abuse prevention and children with special health care needs. I currently work for The Suquamish Tribe which is located on the Kitsap Peninsula between Bainbridge Island and Poulsbo. I work in the Human Services Department and managing a number of programs. My husband and I live in Bremerton with our two dogs, two cats and a lizard. I enjoy gardening, hiking, scrapbooking and photography when I have the time.

Hello, my name is Delores, I was born and raised in Michigan and have lived in Seattle for 8 years. I am very excited for this opportunity to pursue my Advanced Practice nursing career with a Community Health Systems focus. I plan to direct my studies in the DNP program towards eliminating health disparities. I am currently a Nurse Consultant for the Department of Social and Health Services. My nursing experience includes intensive care, orthopedics, trauma, case management, long term care and utilization review, to name a few. I enjoy dancing, political history, road trips and spending time with family and friends. I look forward to the challenges ahead and to explore how culture impacts health care.

Hi, I’m Liz. I grew up as a second generation Greek-American just outside of Detroit, MI. Being an adventurer, instead of finishing college I headed up to Alaska to work in the woods for a few months. That original short-term plan ended-up to be 18 years worth of adventures in Alaska including raising 3 children and climbing many mountains (figuratively and literally). I worked for many years teaching independent living skills to people with disabilities, as a paraprofessional for high school students with learning disabilities and negotiating the endless challenges of raising teenagers mostly as a single parent. As my children grew, my concern for the environment led me to a degree in environmental technology which I worked in for a relatively short time until my financial and family responsibilities caused another change in direction for me. Most recently, I had become a fisherman with a small freezer/processing troll salmon boat that I ran with my partner and occasionally my children. Some of the challenges of that work emotionally (watching life expire many times a day), physically (extreme hours, lifting fish larger that myself, fighting sea sickness and weather) and the social isolation (long periods of no phone contact or news) eventually led me to reassess my career choices. Putting together all the things I learned along the way, what I loved to do and what made me good at my past occupations and as a parent, plus the desire to maintain adventure and secure income all led me to nursing. I received my BSN here at the UW just last June. Nursing school helped me narrow down my focus on community as my area of greatest interest. This decision has led me to a broader view of my possibilities in the world of doing the most good for the most people as a nurse.

I was born and raised in the greater Seattle area. I earned my BS in Psychology from Seattle University in 2001, and promptly began working at a motorcycle shop. After several years of putting my degree to good use, the inevitable happened; I wrecked on my bike. Three dozen surgeries, two months in the hospital, and another month in a nursing home is all it took for me to realize I should consider a different career path. I took a job as a mental health specialist in an involuntary, inpatient psychiatric hospital. My experiences there were incomparable. It opened my eyes. I was constantly confronted by the inequities and disparities in health care. I decided to dedicate my life to the service of others. I came to the University of Washington to pursue a future in nursing, with a focus on cross-cultural and global health. I graduated from the GEPN program with my BSN, and I am now a Registered Nurse. I work part time at a tribal community health clinic.

I am very excited to be in the CHN program, and it has been quite a journey getting here. I grew up in Bellingham WA., but I have a strong connection to Portland OR., where I spent a lot of my young adult life. Before I obtained my undergraduate degree in nursing I was busy seeing the world with my, now husband Chris. I lived and worked to have adventures and travel. That is when my world view really expanded. Witnessing first hand the inequalities in places like China, India, and Central America is when I first became inspired to become a nurse. This inspiration led me to seek out cross-cultural experiences such as studying Spanish in Nicaragua and volunteering at Country Doctor Community Health Clinic in Seattle. Volunteering in Uganda as a nurse for Doctors for Global Health in 2010, fulfilled a longtime dream of practicing as a nurse in Africa. Training Village Health Workers in Uganda confirmed my passion for finding ways to empower communities to promote health. I currently work at the VA on a surgical floor. I love; animals (I have two cats and have always wanted goats), playing in nature, (especially cross-country skiing) oolong tea, dinner parties, and organizing events for my women’s group. My new favorite thing is graduate school, because I am so excited to learn from an amazing group of people, that care about social justice as much as I do!

Hello, my name is Karen Dee. I’m from Oak Lawn, IL, a southwest suburb of Chicago, and I have lived in IL all my life. I’m already in love with the topographical diversity here in WA! I have been interested in community health since nursing school at University of Illinois, but started out as a bedside nurse on a med/tele nurse due to the advice of those around me. As it turned out, I loved it, and it inadvertently gave me insight into the needs of the central Illinois community in which I worked. I was frustrated with some of the social issues my patients had to deal with, such as lack of insurance and hence access to care, and lack of education leading to poor health choices. As a volunteer in a free clinic, I saw a lot of the same issues arise. I think as nurses we can make a difference in a lot of ways, and my path to hopefully making that difference led me back to school to study community health nursing.

I am particularly interested in cross-cultural and global health, and studying how sociological factors affect health practices and outcomes, particularly with respect to infectious diseases. I spent some time in Kenya after graduating nursing school, and this, along with several other experiences in both my personal and professional life, have led me to have an intense interest in cross-cultural relationship building and what it means to explore health in the context of communities. I am particularly interested in working with underserved populations.

In my spare time (when I have any!), I enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking and boating, reading, traveling, and cooking vegetarian food. I also love pets, and would definitely have several if my apartment complex let me!

My name is Karen and I am native to Washington State. I was raised in Pierce County where most of my family remains living today. I grew up enjoying activities such as riding horses, camping, fishing and skiing. I have been living in the Seattle area in the past two years. When I am not studying, I spend most of my time with my fiancé’ and we enjoy cycling leisurely together.

My love for nursing and cross-cultural studies started on a two-week trip to Oklahoma working with the Choctaw Indian youth camp in 1992. From that time, I started pursing my nursing degree at Seattle Pacific University in 1997 with a minor in cross-cultural studies. Since graduation, I have traveled oversees doing medical volunteer (Spain and Peru) and community volunteering in homeless shelters.

Professionally, I have spent many years in medical research working in aging health as a research nurse at the University of Washington.

When I found the CHN program at the UW, my hope is to merge my interest cross-cultural health with my research background in the context of community health.

I was born and raised in Manhattan until my family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Both cities were exciting and enriching places to be a young person because of the proximity to so many universities, and the many people of different cultures and diverse backgrounds. I earned a BA in History with a focus on Southeast Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I spent a semester studying in Hanoi, Vietnam and exploring Southeast Asia. After graduating I immediately returned to Hanoi and worked at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES), where I was first inspired by the connections between environmental and public health. Through CRES, I completed research on the community health of the Dzao ethnic minority and their use of medicinal plants.

I returned to the U.S. and bounced around ski towns in the Northwest for a few years, then moved to Hawai’i where I started my nursing education, and worked in different sectors of community health. I then returned to Boston where I completed my RN at Northeastern University. Although I loved the urban-based education I received there, I returned to the Northwest and have spent the past 5 years working on an adult and pediatric medical-surgical unit, and teaching nursing at Bellingham Technical College.

In the CHN program, I hope to gain the tools to effect health and wellness on a broader scale that addresses the needs of people of all economic and cultural backgrounds equally. I then hope to use those tools in work with communities here in Washington state, and also globally.

Hi, I’m Katie Johnson. I grew up in a tiny town in upstate NY, earned my BSN at the University of Rochester, NY (a very long time ago), and have worked on a Medical floor, Burn ICU, Blood Center Pheresis Unit, and Respiratory Home Care. I’m also married and a mom of three children (26, 24 & 22).

I’m beginning my 8th year as a school nurse in the Edmonds School District where I also support the Health Services Department in using our electronic documentation systems. School nurses care for students from every clinic in the most comprehensive health care facility and translate the health, safety and legal implications of chronic conditions in the education setting for non-health staff. If I worked full time, I would have a caseload of 1600 students which falls about in the middle of school nurse: student ratios nationally - there are huge disparities in resources for school health services in the US. I have 1 day/ week in my buildings and on other days, I delegate medication administration, emergency care, and health room tasks to the office staff in my schools (who are also answering telephones, making photocopies for teachers, monitoring students with behavioral problems, etc, etc). I love my work, but am frustrated at the differences between and needs and resources.

This frustration led me to discover that there is a lack of solid data about school health services to not only describe the needs of our students, but also the ways in which school nurses intervene to support chronically ill and well students. To address this gap in data, my MN project looked at the variables that some states use to report on school health with the end goal of developing a nationally standardized data collection system for school health. I am working closely with the Research Director of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) to support this project and presented results of my work at the NASN annual conference in June, 2010 and as a poster at the Summer Institute of Nursing Informatics (SINI) in July. While I was at SINI, I learned about how health care reform is affecting the use of electronic health records and have had an article accepted for publication in the Journal of School Nursing addressing the meaningful use of EHRs and the implications of this element of health care reform for school nursing and school health data collection. My plan is to continue this work as my DNP capstone project.

Hi! I’m Kristen. I was born in Huntington, West Virginia near Marshall University – go herd! – but grew up in North Carolina. I obtained my BSN from UNC-Charlotte after struggling with the decision of pursuing an art degree, education degree or a nursing degree.

It was not long into my nursing program when I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed community health and psych nursing. Instead of working in a hospital after graduation I boarded a plane with 21 other Americans and headed off to Africa with the Peace Corps. I lived in a village in Malawi for 26 months. My primary goal was to increase the number of health professionals in Malawi through nurse education at Trinity College of Nursing and Midwifery.

I additionally did a number of secondary projects with various groups ranging from medicinal garden training, oil press income generating activities, gender and development projects including camps for secondary school girls, prevention of tropical diseases campaigns and projects with People Living with HIV. I also backpacked and hitched all over Malawi and several other countries in southern Africa, and learned that in addition to art, ITF tae kwon do, reading and traveling I love scuba diving, sand boarding, whitewater rafting – and cheese! My experiences in Africa made me understand the importance of culture when providing healthcare, and this is where my focus lies.

Hello, my name is Leila. Five years ago I was living in Shanghai, China teaching music at an international school. Each day I saw various forms of poverty around me, and during holidays I traveled throughout Asia exploring various cultures of the world. I knew I wanted to make a difference on a practical level and began looking into medical and nursing programs.

In 2006 I moved to Boston and started a direct entry MSN program. Recently, as a nurse, I had the opportunity to do disaster relief in post-earthquake Haiti with Partners in Health. Over the last four summers I've also helped head-up a global medical education project that sends medical and nursing students to the middle east to teach courses on basic public health and evidenced based practice.

Upon graduating with my FNP degree in May of 2010, I migrated west to Seattle to begin a DNP in community health with an internship at one of the local Indian reservations. I'm excited to see what new adventures await me and find myself lucky to make the northwest my new home.

Hi, I started my education at Washington State University (I know, I was a cougar...) as a pre-med student. After some volunteering and job shadowing, I quickly realized I did not want to be a physician and in fact I must more adhered to the nursing model of care. I switched in my second year and spent a total of three at WSU as I was continually wait-listed for the nursing program. I transferred to Lewis-Clark and completed the BSN program. As a new grad I started the emergency department residency at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett and continued to work there and St. Josephs's in Bellingham for 2.5 years. I started my graduate program at Boise State University and was a teaching assistant and research assistant. At the time I did not have interest in the community health nursing program (ironic I know) and transferred to UW-Tacoma. I graduated from UWT December 2010 with a masters of nursing degree as a nurse educator. Since that time I have worked at Virginia Mason Medical Center in the emergency department as the clinical nurse specialist.

For fun I love to spend time with my family, particularly my husband, sister and niece who live in Bellingham. My husband and I like to go to movies, golf, workout and travel. For graduation my husband took me to Europe, Italy and France specifically. We spent Christmas in Italy and attended midnight mass at the Vatican and then drove to France for New Years Eve.

I look forward to meeting new people and really enjoy doing group work and and study groups.

Hi everyone, my name is Mary. I am brand new to the Seattle area, but so far I love the mountains, the water and the people here. I grew up in Northern Virginia, in the busy suburbs of Washington D.C. I went to school at George Mason University where I received a BSN and BA in Sociology. After school, I began working on a med/surg floor in a local hospital and at an exciting and very diverse free clinic nearby. I love to travel, work, learn and explore. I have been lucky enough to do those things in several areas including Guatemala and Honduras where I spent a couple of months during nursing school trying to learn Spanish and work in a hospital/long term care facility. During my undergrad studies I also spent a month in Cuba looking at the public health system there. Then last year I had to opportunity to travel with Doctors Without Borders to Southern Sudan where I worked in a small village with a group of Dinka refugees returning from refugee camps in Darfur and in other surrounding countries. I have also worked closer to home when I volunteered with the Red Cross in a shelter in Louisiana in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. I enjoy the challenges of working with and raising awareness for under-served and displaced populations. I am looking forward to the APCHSN program because I hope to gain a deeper understanding for the big picture. I am excited about working with other folks also interested in public health issues.

Hi, my name is Megan Rohm. I am from a fairly small town in Michigan where Psychology was my first scholarly pursuit. Volunteer work in New Orleans led me toward the field of nursing and making service a regular part of my life. I finished up my BS before leaving Michigan and went to nursing school in Baltimore! Then I made the move to Washington so I could enjoy winter driving without ice. I love the temperate climate Washington offers. I have worked at Harborview Medical Center for several years since I have been out here and I enjoy the challenge and the mission. Looking forward to getting more experience in the community at the UW!

My name is Megan Vaughan, and although I am a native to WA, I just recently moved back to Kent, WA after being away for the past six years. After graduating high school, I moved out to CO to obtain my BSN at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO. In 2007, tired of snow and being land-locked, I moved to sunny Southern California where I worked for two years as a pediatric nurse in a 98 bed acute care unit within a large children’s hospital. While there, I caught the teaching bug and began teaching pediatric clinical to undergraduate junior level nursing students.

I was blessed to be accepted into the APCHSN (community health) DNP program, as it brought be back into the arms of my family, and will allow me to learn more about my passion in nursing...community health. I fell in love with community health while an undergrad, and knew that it was the right fit for me. I look forward to growing in my role as both a bedside nurse and community leader.

Hello, my name is Michelle. I grew up in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. I actually spent many summers over on the Kitsap Peninsula! My adventures rarely brought me to this side of the water though so this area is new to me! I had the privilege of spending 4 years in Hawaii where I received my BSN at Hawaii Pacific University in 2001. This was a most awesome and profound experience and had a tremendous impact on the shaping of my life and who I am today. I have the Air Force to thank as I was on an AFROTC scholarship throughout nursing school. This meant, of course, that I was committed to serving my country upon graduation, which was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have had the opportunity to work primarily with pediatrics (inpatient, ICU, clinic) throughout my military career with a couple deployments where I had the honor of caring for our Wounded Warriors. The military has provided me with amazing experiences that have developed my knowledge and skills not only as a nurse but as a leader and a manager.

I am still active duty and, once again, have the military to thank for providing me with the opportunity to pursue further education, this time in Community Health Nursing. Because of my pediatric background I would definitely like to focus on Community Youth. I am very excited to learn about this aspect of nursing!

I am married to a wonderfully supportive husband and have three children—a 9 year old, 2 year old, and 6 month old. After being away from my parents and brothers for the past 14 years, I am thankful to be close to home for this experience and plan to enjoy every minute of it!

My name is Naomi True and I am a single mother of a 6–year-old daughter. We are originally from the San Francisco Bay Area but moved to Seattle to be close to family and so I could attend the BSN program here at the UW School of Nursing. I spent a most of my waking life as a traveling musician playing in political rock bands, but after many years I decided there was a better way to help to change social inequalities. I returned to school after my daughter was born and survived the BSN program, but 2 months before graduation I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I finished my senior practicum and 12 hour clinicals while undergoing chemotherapy.

Shortly after graduation I had surgery and I am now waiting for radiation therapy. These challenges have affected many of my views about health and aging. This life-transforming event has opened my eyes to a world around me that I previously took for granted. I have found new interests in community programs focusing on cancer prevention, care, and education.

I am a yoga-practicing, coffee-sipping urban homebody whose name, despite its length, is not short for anything. My biggest indulgences are browsing Anthropologie catalogs, drinking kombucha and boogieing down at Emerald City soul night. I believe access to health care should be human right and I plan to affect the future of health care in our country. Within public health my passions lie in health policy and community-based, community member-led, wellness programming.

My name is Nichole Wenala, but I simply go by Niki. I relish the outdoors; enjoy exercising, running marathons and playing soccer. I am very much family oriented including my 4 lb dog, Bella. I was born, raised and spent most of my life in the Seattle area, however, I have had the opportunity to travel and live in multiple locations over the years. Among those places and notably my favorites are Madrid Spain, Peru and Cabo San Lucas.

After graduating with a BS degree in Health Information Administration from the University of Washington, I decided to leave the rain and travel to the sunny climate of Southern California. There, I received a BS in Nursing at Loma Linda University. As much as the warm air and daily sun was nurturing, I couldn’t stay away from the beautiful green forests and endless mountains here in Washington. Upon returning, I began my nursing career at Swedish Medical Center in the Adult ICU where I have spent the past three years of my career. Although I have gained tremendous knowledge while working as an intensive care nurse, the focus of my goals is truly on the needs of our community and the continuum of care. This has prompted me to revisit the University of Washington to pursue a Master’s of Nursing in Community Health.

Hello. I’m an east coast transplant who, in 1975, on the advice of a friend, vacationed in Bellingham, WA instead of Paris. I still haven’t seen Paris, and I’ve grown roots in the northwest. Actually, I feel like I have three homes: Massachusetts, Bellingham, and more recently Honolulu, where I’ve spent enough time to feel like someday I could sprout some roots.

Because I have an agreeable spouse and mostly launched children, I was able to take a break from nursing to tend to the rest of my life and figure out what came next. The first time I went to graduate school (a very, very long time ago at Arizona State University), I had babies and went to work instead of finishing my thesis. Now, after a long career in public health nursing (federal, tribal, county and independent practice), I decided to return to school rather than retire.

I'd like to become a better advocate for low-income moms with young children, and be more involved with systems and policy. I’ve always loved doing home visits, especially to folks with a world view that's not mine, and see home visiting as a service delivery model that can extend social justice. I learn lots from people’s stories and may be interested in doing qualitative research – if I can get past the “not finishing the thesis” memory.

When I’m not a student, I like to put on my garden clothes and play in the dirt, tinker at the piano, have an exercise date with a loved one, or cook and share a family meal. And I also escape the Western Washington winter for sunnier locations when opportunity knocks.

Hello, My name is Rachel D’Abbracci. I grew up in Monroe, WA and attended nursing school at EvCC. Upon obtaining my RN I shortly worked on a cardiac-tele floor at Providence Regional Hospital before moving to the emergency department, where I passionately worked for another four years before taking a break to pursue my BSN at UWB. I currently work for an IVT company part time.

I’m married and have twin three year olds that keep me pretty busy. On top of school and family I am a huge animal lover and enjoy my many pets, which include a horse, bees, dogs, cats, a snake, chickens, ducks and a 150-gallon saltwater fish tank. I also love gardening and trying new things. I have swam with sharks and stingrays, been sky diving and zip lining and am currently planning a trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro when I finish my degree!

I am so excited to be pursuing community health and think it’s such a great avenue to create change in the world. I plan to use my degree to pursue a career in humanitarian aid, although I am hoping the next couple of years will help me narrow down my numerous visions for my future career.

I’ve come back to Seattle to study nursing at UW, and feel really fortunate to have this opportunity. In the 10 years I’ve been away, I had been working as a construction assistant with Habitat for Humanity in Oakland, CA, as a caregiver in a home for elderly and children in Bangalore, India, and as a Peace Corps health promoter in Oruro and Cochabamba, Bolivia. I look forward to a career where I can affect change both directly and systemically as a community health nurse.

After growing up in Tacoma, WA, I earned my BA in political science and international relations from Gonzaga University in Spokane. I then took off for Mali, West Africa with the Peace Corps, where I was a Health Education volunteer for two years. I had opportunities to work with some wonderful folks over there, and I learned a lot about what it means to work with a community. It was there I decided to enter the field of nursing. Since returning to Seattle, I have completed the graduate entry program in nursing to become an RN, spent time pacing in my vegetable garden, and become an avid bicyclist. I love the Pacific Northwest, and hope to spend many more years working for the health of communities here.

Hey, I’m Rebecca. Many people also call me Becky, but all my name tags say Rebecca. I honestly don’t have a preference. I was born and raised in a tiny rural town in western Massachusetts about 1 1/2 hours from Boston and 2 1/2 hours from New York City. At 18, I moved to Lincoln Center in Manhattan. I spent 4 years there exploring city life and getting a BA in English Lit. After graduation, I went back to Massachusetts for surgery. While laid up, I developed a strong urge for concrete hands on technical skill to offer the world. I got my BSN from UMass Amherst.

In the last 6 years I’ve explored the art of bedside nursing. I’ve worked in 16 hospitals, 3 clinics in 6 states and 3 countries. Currently I work 60% at UWMC in the Cardiothoracic Intensive Care unit and per diem in Addiction Recovery Services at Swedish Ballard. I’ve been living in Seattle a little over two years now. The beauty of the Pacific Northwest still astounds me. As much as I’ve enjoyed my experiences as a bedside nurse, I feel the true future of health care is at the community level. My career so far has illustrated bright and clear that lives are only temporarily saved in the acute care setting. So here I am in the Community Health Nurse MN program. Looking forward to an exciting new chapter in my life.

Hi, I’m Sunny. I named myself Sunny when I came from Korea 11 years ago because not only it sounds similar to my official Korean name “Sun”, but it also captures the sense of optimism, energy, and vitality I feel in my life and for others. I hope I could bring “Sunny” to Seattle this winter.

With compassion and the tools of medicine and public health, I wish to devote myself to serve underserved populations around the world where all hope seems to be lost. During undergraduate years, I studied Music in UC Berkeley and hope my musical talent could be used as a profound tool to communicate with those populations.

I've taken the scenic route to community health nursing. I grew up in Ohio and Missouri and earned my BA in Media Studies at Carleton College in Minnesota. I then moved to New York City, where I co-founded a small publishing press and worked at a magazine or two before relocating to Seattle for a job working on board games.

A trip to Mozambique woke me out of a slumber, and slowly but surely I made my way to UW in the graduate entry program in nursing. Three weeks after I earned my BSN (and four years after my first visit) I returned to Mozambique to volunteer as a nurse. It won't surprise you then to learn that I'm especially interested in cross-cultural and global health.

In my free time I'm a (slow) runner, avid hiker, and film nerd.

After growing up in Alaska, I received a BS in psychology and health promotion from Southern Oregon University. After graduation, I worked as a health educator in Turkmenistan for the Peace Corps. It was a challenging and life changing experience that motivated me to go back to school to pursue a career in public health. I received an accelerated BSN from University of Washington and am excited about public health opportunities in nursing. I hope to return to Alaska to work on health policy and advocacy issues concerning my state.

Hi, my name is Tina. I was born and raised in Rhode Island, home of such delicacies as Del’s Lemonade and the Awful Awful. I left the beautiful ocean state for college at GWU in Washington, DC, where I studied psychology. While there, I interned for NAMI and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. I loved policy and advocacy work but put those pieces on hold to focus on direct care. I moved to New Haven and entered the GEPN program at Yale to study psychiatry. I’ve lived in the PNW for the past 3 years while participating in the NHSC loan repayment program. I’m a PMHNP at Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, working with children and families. I’m excited about the CHN program and promoting mental health in the community I serve. In my free time, I explore Washington State with my husband and our four adopted critters, a Doberman, a Chihuahua, and two teenage mom cats.

My name is Trena Redman. I graduated from Washington State University in 2001 with BSN, and I have experience as an ER nurse, a non-profit family practice nurse, and a medical-surgical nurse. Working in these settings has strengthened my conviction that our current sickness-driven healthcare is not where I want to spend my efforts. I want to be part of helping all people create healthy lives, focusing on prevention and wellness. I am excited to be in the Masters in Community Health Nursing program!

When I’m not studying or working at UWMC, I enjoy spending time with my husband and 4-year-old daughter. I love to bike, read, garden, and travel (when funds permit!).

When I was in the 6th grade, I loved to play tether ball. I loved it so much that I convinced my parents to put a tether ball in our back yard. Unfortunately, none of us knew what a strong child I was, so we failed to secure the pole into the ground. One day, I hit the ball so hard the pole uprooted from the soft dirt in our back yard and hit me on the head. It left a nice bruise that turned a beautiful green shade just in time for my 6th grade photo two days later. This has nothing to do with nursing or my career.

As for nursing, I wasn't the kid who played nurse with my stuffed animals. I decided my last year in high school that nursing seemed like a good fit – science, biology, anatomy, relationships, helping people feel better – I liked all those things. And I didn't want to be in school for years and years to become a doctor (a fact that strikes me as ironic now). So, I set about earning my Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Seattle Pacific University. I survived the program (barely), and took a job on a med-surg-onc floor at a local hospital, because that's what good nursing students do immediately after earning a BSN. I lasted six weeks in that job. That's about how long it took me to realize I didn't like the task-oriented, order-following, overwhelming patient-load work of bedside nursing. My next job, what I consider my first “real” job after nursing school, was as a staff nurse at a community clinic in Seattle.

Working at the clinic appealed to my desire for variety in my work day. We never knew what kinds of calls or in-person triage we would get. I loved the patients at that clinic, and the doctors weren't bad, either. I was happy to have escaped the sterile hospital and found refuge in a place with a real community feel. However, that clinic population is high maintenance, and I felt the burnout coming on after about two years. So, I took a new job with Public Health – Seattle & King County to get an idea of what the bigger picture of health systems in our county looks like. Two years later, I'm still there and still enjoying the work. But I miss the patients, and I miss the community/family feel. I'm looking forward to studying community health systems – working with health professionals, community members, and other team members on a broad variety of projects with the goal of promoting health and well-being in diverse communities. I haven't yet found a population or group of special interest to me. But being less than one quarter into the program, I think I've got some time to figure that out.