Welcome to the practice!

I am a board certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, and am also dually board certified as a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have been in practice since 1998 for over 25 years, and completed all of my training, including my doctorate, at Vanderbilt University. Prior to becoming a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, I worked as a Family Nurse Practitioner in various specialties, including urgent care, emergency medicine, advanced heart failure/transplant, and also provided medical care for hospitalized psychiatric patients. It was through that final experience that I discovered my passion for working with patients who have mental health issues, and then decided to pursue further education in the psychiatric specialty.

After becoming a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, I worked in a major metropolitan hospital and saw psychiatric patients in a variety of settings. My various roles included working with psychiatric patients in the emergency department, the medical-psychiatric unit in the hospital, the pediatric intensive care unit, the partial hospitalization program, the intensive outpatient program, and the psychiatric hospital. In addition, I have worked in a psychiatric consultation liaison role and also led group therapy sessions in an outpatient setting. I have been part of the adjunct faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing since September of 2022, after previously guest lecturing there for several years. Additionally, I have had the honor of guest lecturing at Fairfield University School of Nursing, and also did a lecture for Grand Rounds at Southwest Community Health Center in Fairfield, CT. I also co-wrote a manuscript in which I was the first author that has been published in a highly regarded, peer-reviewed medical journal.

Given my dual board certification as both a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and as a Family Nurse Practitioner, I will take into careful consideration how medical conditions can affect your mental health. I will focus on you, as an individual, to tailor your treatment plan to meet your personal needs and goals. My philosophy includes medication management when it is appropriate, as most psychiatric illnesses will respond best when treated with medications, if indicated. In addition, you will have the opportunity to meet CoCo, an elderly Shih Tzu, who is a psychiatric support dog that comes to the practice. I greatly look forward to working with you, and providing you with optimal, therapeutic, mental health solutions.