I am a second year master's student in health policy at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. I have been a neonatal intensive care nurse for seven years and decided to return to school to find a new challenge in health care, one that would allow me to look at health from a broader perspective. I hope to use my graduate education towards policy work that will improve the health of infants and children.

During the summer of 2004 I completed a policy residency at the March of Dimes Office of Government Affairs in Washington, D.C. As a policy research assistant, I focused on topics such as prematurity, birth defects, newborn screening, immunizations, and Medicaid/SCHIP. In my second year at UCSF, I will continue work on a research project developing an evidence base for health insurance for children with special health care needs.

Going back to school has inspired me to become more involved in my community; opportunities for extra-curricular activities abound at UCSF and have enriched my experience immensely. I am currently an active member of Children's Health Hut, a student-run group at UCSF that puts on health fairs for kids in underserved areas of San Francisco; additionally I recently joined the Nightingales, a group of nurse activists who work to focus public attention on the behavior of the tobacco industry and its contribution to the preventable epidemic of tobacco-caused disease and death.

I hold a B.S. in nursing from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, San Diego.