Board of Directors

I have 18 years of experience as a CVICU Registered Nurse and have served as a Critical Care Educator for the past 3 years. My background also includes work as a Clinical Instructor, where I developed a passion for mentoring and supporting nurses in their professional growth. I am deeply committed to education, evidence-based practice, and advancing excellence in critical care. As part of our chapter leadership, I am excited to help grow our community with engaging events, meaningful education, and networking opportunities that bring members together.

I have been an AACN IE Chapter Board member for the past 10 years.  I currently work as a Part Time ICU Nurse with a Master’s Degree in Nursing Education. I am passionate about Critical Care and nursing education using a modern learning approach. I developed and launched an eLearning course that helps Critical Care nurses pass the CCRN exam. I believe in the mission of the AACN Inland Empire Chapter and I look forward to helping in whatever capacity I can to promote our vision for 2024. There are multiple challenges as well as opportunities on the horizon for our chapter and I believe that with the right leadership and board participation and engagement, we can achieve a new level of excellence for our members and our community.  

I am currently working in the Intensive Care Unit at Saint Bernardine Medical Center and the Intensive Care Unit at Redlands Community Hospital. I am writing to be considered as an At Large member of the Board of the Inland Empire Chapter of the AACN.

I graduated in 2003 from Mt San Jacinto College with my Associate Degree in Nursing and began training on the telemetry unit at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. After a few years of floating throughout the facility and taking multiple classes offered, I began to feel there were gaps in my knowledge that I could only remedy with additional  experience. In 2007 I began working at the Cardiovascular Unit at Riverside Community Hospital, and enrolled in California State Fullerton’s RN to BSN program in 2009. 

After graduation I transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, and I returned to CSUF to pursue a MSN, graduating in 2015. Since then I have had roles in cardiac, medical, neuro, and trauma intensive care, ambulatory care roles in Corrections and Dialysis, and forays into Performance Improvement, Professional Development, Infection Control and Employee Health. 

In the spring of 2020 I saw the toll the pandemic was taking on my colleagues, and wanted to be part of the solution. I left my new role in outpatient dialysis and took a position in the Float Pool at Riverside University Health System Medical Center. I requested to orient in ICU so that I could float wherever needed. It was there that I met Jacqueline Hoogervorst, then the IEAACN Chapter President, as my preceptor on the unit. 

With her encouragement I became more involved in the chapter. As the chapter has grown it has become a fundamental joy in my practice, as each meeting reinvigorates my passion for learning and reminds me of why I started and continue in this profession. The people I have met through the chapter have all been invaluable in sustaining my career. I cannot emphasize enough how important the Chapter is to me, except to note that I was burned out even before the pandemic, and participation in the Inland Empire chapter sustained me through it and cemented my resolve to continue as a murse. I obtained my CCRN in 2020, after taking a class from our chapter Education Coordinator Nicholas McGowan. I had been too afraid to try prior to his class.