Hawaiʻi-ANA Celebration of 2024 Nurses Week (free CE!)

Having served in the United States Air Force for 30 years, I recently retired as a Colonel. I am now settling into my forever community and eager to find ways to connect and continue to serve a purpose larger than myself. My military service has instilled a commitment to discipline, resilience, and adaptability, among a lifetime of experience in healthcare across our nation and the globe—experiences that I hope will provide value to pull from as we nurses work together to empower each other to navigate the challenging healthcare landscape we find ourselves in. I have had the great honor of serving on other local boards, first as the President of the ACHE Guam Local Program Chapter, where I cultivated a passion for networking across our unique island communities, partnering with other leaders as we solved complex problems unique to the experiences one faces with staffing, complex care, and scarce resources in a remote island of the Pacific. Later, I had the privilege of serving as the Military Liaison for the ACHE Hawaii Chapter. This experience allowed me to bridge the gap between civilian and military healthcare systems on Oahu, where we got to partner and learn from each other to ensure seamless care coordination for service members and veterans. My dedication to this dual role was recognized with the ACHE President’s Award and the prestigious ACHE Regent’s Award in the same year. My extensive background in healthcare leadership, board service, and military experience uniquely provides me an opportunity to contribute meaningfully to Hawaiʻi-ANA's mission. As a Hawaiʻi-ANA Director-At-Large, I leverage my knowledge, leadership skills, and passion for nursing to advocate for the profession, promote evidence-based practice, and champion the well-being of healthcare providers and their patients. Together, we can continue to elevate the standard of healthcare in Hawaii as well as each other.