Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

I am an advanced registered nurse practitioner dually certified as a clinical specialist in adult psychiatric–mental health nursing and a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner. I am Prof Emerita at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where I developed and coordinated the Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Doctor of Nursing Practice program. I am Director of Psychiatric Services at Northwest Integrated Health, a substance abuse treatment center, in Tacoma, WA where I practice 12 hours/week as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. In this capacity I conduct full psychiatric evaluations, document a differential diagnosis, prescribe psychotropic medications, and conduct both individual and group psychotherapy for complex patients that have both a substance use disorder and a major mental illness. From January 2009 to August 2014, I was Director of the Psychiatric–Mental Health Nurse Practitioner specialty at the Yale University School of Nursing. I was owner of the first independent rural advanced practice nurse managed psychiatric clinic in the United States from 1992-2008. I have authored more than 80 articles, book chapters, training manuals, policy statements, and am co-author of a best-selling undergraduate psychiatric nursing textbook published by Pearson entitled Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing: From Suffering to Hope, 2nd edition that received a 2020 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award. I have given over 1000 professional and research presentations both nationally and internationally. I have lectured/consulted in all 50 states, Australia, British Columbia, China, Cuba, Denmark, England, Hong Kong, Israel, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Singapore, and Spain. I have received numerous awards including the Psychiatric Nurse of the Year from the Am. Psychiatric Nurses Ass, National Alliance on Mental Illness Professional of the Year , APNA Distinguished Service Award, APNA Award for Clinical Excellence. Assn of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses Award for Clinical Excellence, Distinguished Alumnus from the U of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, and induction as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing. She was the American Nurses Association representative to the JCAHO Psychiatric Professional and Technical Advisory Committee for 5 years. I am currently on the Board of Directors of the WA Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I was on the Board of Directors of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association from2008-2011 and served as President in 2010. I was also President of the WA State Association of Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses in 2017. I was a consultant and co-author with the WHO team from Barcelona, Spain on the development of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Sets for schizophrenia. She was a panel participant and co-author of the World Federation of Mental Health project entitled Schizophrenia: Time to Commit to Policy Change project. In 2020 she completed a two-year term on the Psychosis Work Group of the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM). The project entailed development of an essential set of patient-reported outcomes for adolescents and adults who met DSM-5 criteria for a schizophrenia spectrum or bipolar I disorder that has the potential to improve clinical decision-making, enhance health care for the benefit of patients, and facilitate scientific knowledge. I have served as consultant to the Israeli Ministry of Health Division of Psychiatric Nursing since 1999. I was Co-PI on a multi-site grant entitled Recovery to Practice from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in which education was developed and disseminated live to 10 different states and ultimately all 50 states virtually through the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.