People Group Archives: Nursing Practice

Darcy Vetro Ravndal is a public health nurse practitioner with an extensive background in program development and education. She is deeply committed to advocating for quality, accessible healthcare for all children and adolescents. Ravndal served as the primary clinician at the Edgewater High School Student Health Center for 10 years and has been instrumental in […]

With over 30 years of academic, clinical, and administrative experience, she is a nationally recognized leader in interprofessional education, curricular design, and holistic nursing. Dr. Dyess is known for her solution-oriented leadership and impactful community-based participatory action research. Her work integrates caring science, human-centered design, and systems thinking to transform nursing education and promote person-centered […]

Kaylee Nettles is a double alumna of UCF, with her expertise being in bone marrow transplant and perianesthesia care. Prior to joining UCF as faculty member, she has served as a bone marrow transplant RN at AdventHealth Orlando and as pre-op/PACU RN at Orlando Regional Medical Center. She has a passion for the field of […]

Sharon Tucker, a distinguished scholar in psychiatric mental health nursing and evidence-based practice, is the dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Central Florida. Tucker joined UCF as a professor and chair of the Department of Nursing Practice in 2024. Her leadership experience spans more than two decades and includes roles at […]

Instructor Jenny Garden has served as an operating room nurse since earning her ASN in 2001 and as a preceptor for nursing students and nurse interns since 2002. She has also served as an infection control practitioner. Garden first joined the University of Central Florida College of Nursing in 2021 as a clinical instructor and […]

A board-certified registered nurse with an extensive background in obstetrical nursing, instructor Kelsey Gaffka is passionate about improving care for the perinatal population as well as facilitating the growth and development of student nurses. Her experience includes level III maternal nursing, labor and delivery, and newborn care, and she is certified in Inpatient Obstetric Nursing […]

Since earning her BSN in 2006, lecturer Latonia Green has held a variety of clinical appointments as a Registered Nurse, Head Nurse and Nurse Manager at hospitals in Tennessee and Florida, most recently as a Nurse Manager at AdventHealth East Orlando, a role in which she directed and managed 24-hour clinical operations of two observation […]

A dual-certified nurse practitioner for the adult-gerontology population, Frances Armstrong has been in the nursing field since earning her BSN in 2012. She developed a passion for critical care while working at the bedside as a Registered Nurse. Armstrong then sought out education for advanced practice nursing, becoming licensed and certified as an Advanced Practice […]

Board-certified pediatric nurse Hannah Spencer has a wide array of experience in pediatric nursing including acute care, outpatient chronic care management, and pediatric pulmonology/sleep medicine with a specific focus on severe asthma and cystic fibrosis. She is also a certified pediatric chemotherapy and biotherapy provider through the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON). A longtime […]

Sandra Kirkland, who joined UCF in 2022 as a lecturer, served for 15 years in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers, most recently as nurse executive for the VA Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana. Prior to that, she served at VA medical centers in Memphis and Orlando, where she was a family nurse practitioner and chief nurse […]