My husband likes to tease me about the alphabet soup behind my name. And it’s true; part of being a healthcare professional is earning the necessary licensure and certification requirements that help ensure safe, knowledgeable, and capable care.
But if I’m being honest, I have always just seen myself as a nurse.
And I don’t mean the word just in a pejorative or diminishing way. Nursing requires a unique kind of strength. It takes guts and heart, as well as brains. It demands a willingness to wade into the realities of what it means to inhabit a body that gets sick, malfunctions, and ages. Nursing requires perseverance and a desire to look beneath the surface. It is being with people, meeting them wherever they are, and attending to them.
What I mean to say is that I am proud to be a nurse, period. It is not just what I do, it is a part of who I am.
When I decided to switch my major to Nursing halfway through my sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I’d been searching for a career path that felt right. I’d always carried a shy yet persistent curiosity about sexual health, and I finally acquiesced to that mysterious pull in the only way I knew how at the time. Pursuing nursing seemed like as good an avenue as any to safely explore this deeply human, yet often taboo, aspect of life within the framework of an esteemed health profession. Maybe, as a nurse, I could build enough trust to crack open this particularly delicate dimension of the human experience.
Although my internal compass was pointing me toward the realm of sexuality, I got sidetracked before I even graduated. I found my way into oncology nursing somewhat by accident after an eye-opening clinical experience during my first year in the program. Once I graduated, I stepped toward the challenge of developing expertise in all things oncology. Within four years, I became an Oncology Certified Nurse and was well on my way to building a meaningful career in the field.
But the universe has a way of reminding us why we are here.
Six years into my oncology nursing career, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. The surreal experience of suddenly finding myself on the other side of the diagnosis upended who I thought I was and where I thought I was going. As both a nurse and a patient, I became acutely aware of the paradoxes that seemed to exist within the ambiguous seas of survivorship. I felt weirdly invisible and exposed at the same time. There was pressure to perform the role of the “grateful cancer survivor” when what I really felt was defeated, lost, and irrevocably altered. I didn’t know how to show up in my life, my relationships, or even in my own body.
As a person experiencing cancer, I felt unmoored. But as an oncology nurse, I felt a peculiar sense of puzzle pieces finally falling into place. Was this my pathway forward?
I stepped into the gap, completing the University of Michigan Sexual Health Certificate Program in 2018 and becoming an AASECT Certified Sexuality Counselor in 2021. But if you know me, you’ll know that I am rarely satisfied when there is more to learn. I returned to school and earned my Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in 2024. My doctoral journey was fueled by a desire to help create something that does not yet fully exist: a stronger, more intentional space for sexual wellness within oncology care and survivorship. It was also fueled by my belief that nursing is uniquely positioned to lead that charge.
What I love most about the nursing profession is its holistic foundation. Nursing recognizes that health is never purely physical. It is shaped by biological, psychological, social, spiritual, and relational experiences. Unlike healthcare disciplines that focus primarily on pathology and disease, nursing practice centers on understanding and supporting human responses to health conditions and life processes.
Nurses work with the wholeness of being human rather than simply a collection of symptoms, diagnoses, or body systems. We explore how illness, treatment, aging, life transitions, and other experiences can affect one’s sense of self, intimacy, relationships, pleasure, and wellbeing. I am not just asking, “What is happening?” I am also interested in, “How is this person experiencing what is happening?”
I seek not only to understand the challenges people face, but also to help them find meaning, recognize their strengths, and forge pathways of hope toward healing, resilience, and growth. I strive to create spaces that honor vulnerability, presence, and feeling seen. These pieces of humanity are profoundly important to our wellbeing, and yet they are often lost within the complexities of medical care.
That is why I am so honored and excited to be joining forces with Intimate Pathways Center for Sexual Health, an organization that shares the belief that sexual health is an essential part of whole-person wellness. Through compassionate clinical care, professional mentorship, education, consultation, and expanded access to services, we are working to create opportunities for people to receive the information and support they deserve.
It is a privilege to be embarking on this mission with this amazing team!
