Laura Mood who won the Margaret Tyson scholarship, has been a registered nurse for 17 years working in a peri-operative setting in multiple capacities. After earning her MSN from the University of Michigan she went on to teach as a full time instructor at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, where she is pursuing her doctoral degree with a focus on nursing education. For her dissertation she is exploring the transition to clinical nurse practice for persons with learning disabilities. She became interested in this topic through her experience working as an instructor with struggling students and new graduate nurses. Her long term goal is to become a disabilities studies scholar within the field of nursing who promotes the inclusion as well as academic and occupational success of students who, for whatever reason, struggle to perform in the clinical setting.