Alumni and Friends

Nursing alumni enjoy connecting to their classmates, other alumni, and today's students and faculty at a variety of events coordinated throughout the year. There's something for everyone, so we hope you'll join us soon!

Get involved! Volunteer opportunities for alumni, parents, students, and friends.

Your generosity supports the next generation of nurses, whether a one-time gift to the Annual Fund, Planned Giving through a will or living trust, or a gift to recognize a special nurse or professor during National Nurses Week. Thank you!

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From the Alumni Association President

My fellow alumni,

Nursing careers are often circuitous. Even for those of us who always knew they’d be nurses, the pathways available with a nursing degree are really varied and, frankly, endless.

My nursing career began when I volunteered as an EMT with the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad, and, while a UVA undergraduate, worked as an ER tech for what was then called Martha Jefferson Hospital. I knew I loved acute care and emergency medicine and, so, after graduation, took a job in the medical ICU at UVA Health where I worked for three years. But the deeper into nursing I went, the more I knew I wanted to take my nursing further. I applied for and enrolled in Columbia University’s MSN program and became a cardiology nurse practitioner.

I loved that work: the rush, the intensity, the patient care. And I did it for more than 15 years until, scratching another itch to earn a DNP (which I did in 2018), I transitioned to my current role where I use everything I’ve learned across my career to help my company, Novo Nordisk, develop new products and pharmaceuticals that help people with cardiovascular problems. These days, I engage in scientific discussion with clinicians, support clinical trials, and work to build system-wide cardiometabolic pathways to support patient health and Novo Nordisk's cardiovascular portfolio. I love this work, too, which, back when I was an undergraduate, I could never have imagined doing.

While you’re in school, students aren’t usually exposed to all the opportunities a nursing degree can unlock. Just as we recently heard from alumni presenters Ashley Dierson (a certified nurse anesthetist, BSN ’06), Stephene Hertwig (a former flight nurse, MSN ’16), and Nina Zorzi (a midwife, BSN ’20), it's important to give students and one another a glimpse of all that's out there.

It’s a lot. Thank you Ashley, Stephene, and Nina for sharing a bit about your pathways and destinations with us!

With warmest regards,