I have been a nurse for 22 years and a critical nurse for 20 years.  I came to know about AVA through trying to solve a vascular access issue at my facility.  I thought I knew a lot about vascular access. Boy was I wrong!  As I began to investigate how to properly care for vascular access devices, I found that the "truths" that I knew were not based in evidence. I have been an AVA member for 10 years.  I am more involved with AVA through the original item writing group for the VACC exam.  From there I ran for the Board of Directors and served one term and was on the D- Team for 2 years.  I have been the Secretary for my current term and wish to return to this position for another term.  I have also served as the liaison to the Foundation Board and the VACC board as my secondary role on the AVA board.

I am a Clinical Nurse Specialist by Education which is an Advanced Practice Role. This role takes you in many leadership directions, many include leading groups of people and process change. Included in this are Practice Council, Education Council and Clinical Support Team.  My current position as a Stroke Program Administrator has me leading my organizations  two Joint Commission Certified Primary Stroke Centers through certification Processes and maintenance and moving the programs forward.  We provide program education and outreach to the EMS community and disease prevention education to the population that we serve. We also support the health care providers in the community the educational opportunities. I am a member of govan and Bucjeye INS chapters as well as national INS, NACNS, AACN, and AANN.  I also volunteer extensively for the 4-H program, supporting the youth in the community that I grew up in.

I continue to lead through mentoring on new nurses, student nurses, and through example by perusing my terminal degree. I feel that education and certification are extremely important expressions of our expertise especially in a field that is relatively unrecognized.  We must lead this organization in the future to be the great organization that it is and to become the greater organization that it will be. Only through authentic leaderships will that potential be realized. Passion and knowledge are the foundation of this organization and through collaboration we will make this great organization realize its full potential.