People Group Archives: Faculty

Instructor Sara Snyder is a seasoned healthcare professional with a rich and diverse background in emergency nursing and a passion for advancing healthcare practices. A Certified Emergency Nurse, she has served in emergency departments and ICUs across the country for nearly two decades. Eager to share her knowledge and expertise, Snyder earned her MSN in […]

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 […]

Kimberly Scalise, DNP, RN, CHSE, CNE, serves as both a lecturer and as the college’s Director of Post-licensure Undergraduate BSN Programs. Experienced in a range of teaching modalities including, online, didactic and simulation, Scalise is especially passionate about online education and preparing post-licensure nurses as they seek higher education. She has extensive experience teaching online […]

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 […]

Dr. Samantha Stephenson is a dedicated certified acute care pediatric nurse practitioner and nurse educator with over two decades of experience in pediatric healthcare. She currently serves as a faculty member at the University of Central Florida’s College of Nursing and continues her clinical practice as a provider in the pediatric emergency department at local […]

As a critical care- and case management-trained registered nurse, military veteran and dependent, and food pantry volunteer, Dr. Crook had the opportunity to work in multiple states in the U.S., where she identified not only the existence of widespread food and nutritional insecurity but a connection between nutrition, chronic inflammation and chronic disease. Her research […]

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 […]

A registered nurse for more than 30 years and public health leader for more than 20, lecturer Fayshonda Cooks created the CommUNITY CollaborACTION Initiative, which emphasizes collaborative unity and action to improve health outcomes. Cooks is a known collaboration champion with belief in the strength and limitless potential of optimizing the assets of all to […]

Associate Professor Rui Xie holds appointments in both the UCF College of Nursing and the UCF College of Sciences in the Department of Statistics and Data Science and is the Principal Investigator at the university’s Artificial Intelligence and Statistics for Health and Nursing Research Lab. His research encompasses the domains of statistics, biostatistics, machine learning […]