Personal Information
I have had a varied career in nursing, which I have found very rewarding. In the 1960s I lived in San Francisco and worked as a Commune Health Nurse during the "flower child" days, in Regional Health Planning, Northern California, in hospitals in communicable diseases, post-coronary care, cancer units and in a Shriners orthopedic Hospital for children. Then I moved to Boston to teach community health at Boston University and worked for 18 years at Harvard Community Health Plan (HCHP) in many roles: as a nurse practitioner with physician collaborators, as a mental health counselor, as unit manager, and Assistant Director of an innovative teaching center for Harvard medical students, Simmons College nurse practitioner students and post-doctorate psyichatric fellows. I met my husband at an MIT play, married, and moved with him to Connecticut for 2 years, where I taught in the Community Health Nurse Practitioner program at Yale and worked as a nurse practitioner in a community health center in a rural community. We returned to Boston, and I went back to work for HCHP in Urgent Care, and as a liaison between mental health and internal medicine units. We moved back to California 22 years ago, bought a townhome in Cardiff, and I studied for my Ph.D. in education, coordinated a training program for obstetrical nurses, was Director of Education for San Diego Hospice, and worked parttime as an Occupational Health nurse practitioner for Kaiser. I taught at the University of San Diego for 14 years in their nurse practitioner programs, and worked in their student health and mental health counseling clinics until 2009, when I retired from there. I now work at National University, developing a new nursing education program.
My interests as a person include gardening, reading historical novels, traveling with my husband, bead jewelry-making, oriental art, cooking, and I love cats. As a professional, my study interests are on life transitions, supporting people to learn and grow, educational motivation, clinical teaching, healing principles, and staying current clinically.
Recent Publications
My latest writing, publications, and presentations have been my dissertation (2000) on The Wisdom of Experts on Clinical Evaluation of Nurse Practitioner Students, on mentoring in on-line courses, and using Problem-Based Learning, clinical cases, and simulations in clinical teaching, testing and evaluation.
Awards
When I was at Harvard Community Health Plan I won awards for exceptional clinical performance and service to the organization. When I was at the University of San Diego I won the student award for exceptional teaching several years, and was awarded the research award from Sigma Theta Tau (Nursing Honor Society) for my dissertation, and a University Professorship in 2009.
Courses Taught
Health and physical assessment, pathophysiology, advanced practice roles, adult NP clinical practice, mental health in primary care, educational theory, teaching skills, Problem-Based Learning, clinical teaching and evaluation, and curriculum development.
Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University & San Diego State University, CA
Adult Nurse Practitioner Credentials from Harvard Community Health Plan & Simmons College. Boston, MA
National Certification as an Adult Nurse Practitioner, 1976- 2015; Certified as a Psychiatric Clinical Specialist for 12 years, earlier in my career
MSN in Psychiatric Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, CA
BSN, University of California, San Francisco. CA
A.A.in Biology, Marin Junior College, Kentfield, CA