Class Notes
1980s
The Alumni Board of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing presented Nancy Agee 80MN with the Distinguished Nursing Achievement Award. This honor is presented to a NHWSN alumnus whose career has demonstrated continuous and exemplary contributions to the profession of nursing.
Fee Pee Ansher 82N of Columbia, Maryland was awarded a 2019 NIH Clinical Center CEO Award in the Administration category in recognition of her tireless efforts as an exceptional leader and role model in representing “all that is good at NIH”. Ansher currently serves as the Neurology Clinic Coordinator at the Clinical Center at NIH.
Tanya M. Sudia Robinson 86MN 94PHD became dean of the College of Nursing at Augusta University in Augusta, Ga., on Jan. 1, 2020. She is an accomplished nursing leader with more than 30 years of experience in higher education, administration, nursing, and health care research. She was an instructor at Tuskegee University School of Nursing, spent 19 years teaching at Emory University School of Nursing, and seven years as a tenured professor at Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist School of Nursing before joining Baylor University as associate dean for research and scholarship at the Louise Herrington School of Nursing.
1990s
Mary (Molly) K. Jones Bachtel 99MSN received the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Advocate State Award for Excellence for the state of Georgia at the association’s national conference in June. This award is presented to a dedicated advocate in each state who has made significant contributions to the nurse practitioners field. Bachtel advocated to improve access to care and remove barriers to practice for Georgia’s APRNs at the capitol. SB 321 passed the GA Legislature this June and will remove the current restrictions on APRNs ordering radiological imaging. Georgia was the only state in the country imposing this restriction on APRNs. Bachtel also serves as the current APRN Director for the Georgia Nurses Association. She is a clinical assistant professor at the School of Nursing.
2000s
Andy Gish 06N was given the Excellence in Nursing Award by the School of Nursing Alumni Board. This honor is presented to an alumnus who has demonstrated exceptional contributions to the profession of nursing in research, education, clinical practice, management and leadership in public health and community service.
Anna Hess Hippchen 00Ox 02C 03BSN is a nurse practitioner at the Miriam Hospital RISE Tuberculosis Clinic in Providence, R.I. Hippchen pursued a career in emergency nursing and public health after graduating from Emory. She worked as an emergency department nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital and volunteered with Mercy Corps. Later she served with Doctors without Borders in South Sudan, Uganda, Nepal, and Turkmenistan where she found her calling to care for patients with tuberculosis. She returned to the U.S. for graduate school and to work as a public health nurse in a TB and Refugee Health program before joining the RISE Tuberculosis Clinic. Hippchen was an Emory University School of Nursing Woodruff Scholar and was included in a slideshow during Emory’s Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in October 2019.
Corinne Braender Oliver 02Ox 04BSN 10MSN and Jeffrey Oliver II announce the birth of a daughter, Emilia Anne, on Nov. 16, 2019. They have another daughter named Isabella. Oliver, who serves on the Nurses Alumni Association Board for the Emory University School of Nursing, is a pediatric nurse practitioner at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.
Joanne McDougal Patterson 04MSN, an assistant professor of health care informatics and nurse entrepreneur, recently opened Dr. Joanne Psychiatry, LLC (drjoannepsychiatry.com), a telepsychiatry practice specializing in reproductive mental health, children, and adolescent mental health. She treats patients in Maryland, Nevada and Georgia via telemedicine and plans to expand to other states and U.S. territories. Patterson is also the national volunteer director of the Stork’s Nest Prenatal Education and Incentive Program, which assists more than 6,500 underserved each year. She was also a 2018 March of Dimes Georgia Nurse of the Year finalist. In late May, she was a panelist on the March of Dimes’ Maternal Facebook Live webinar.
Mindi M. Fry 08BSN 09MSN is a nurse practitioner who specializes in cardiology at Virginia Cardiovascular Consultants in Fredericksburg, Va. She worked in Harrisburg, Pa., from 2010-2019 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Pinnacle Health Cardiovascular Institute. Fry was an Emory University School of Nursing Woodruff Scholar and Woodruff Fellow and was included in a slideshow during Emory’s Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in October 2019.
2010s
Gabrielle L. Bloch 16BSN is a registered nurse on the hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplant floor at St. Louis University Hospital. Bloch was an Emory University School of Nursing Woodruff Scholar and was included in a slideshow during Emory’s Homecoming and Reunion Weekend in October 2019.
Dennis Flores, 12MSN was awarded the Recent Graduate Award by the School of Nursing’s Alumni Board. This award goes to a graduate from the past ten years who has contributed exceptional service to the Nurses’ Alumni Association, the School of Nursing, and to the profession of nursing.
2020s
Timothy R. Macchi 20BSN was featured as the first fall 2019 ESNA Student Spotlight. As an undergrad student at George Washington University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in public health, Macchi volunteered for an ambulance company in the District of Columbia, serving at marches, marathons, and rallies. He also worked one year at an emergency medicine consulting group that dealt with telemedicine and disaster management, and one semester as a tech at George Washington Hospital Emergency Room. Macchi loves emergency medicine and disaster management and hopes to work in an intensive care unit after graduation from Emory.
Kathryn K. Moore 15BSN 20MSN, a Woodruff Fellow, gave birth to a healthy boy, Isaac Victor Moore, in June. Moore has also been selected for promotion to Major in the Georgia Army National Guard.
