Since I was a young child, all I ever wanted was to become a nurse. Now, I truly can say that I AM living my dream! I earned my diploma in nursing from the Sharon Regional Health System (SRHS) School of Nursing in 1995 and after passing my NCLEX-RN exam, I became a licensed Registered Nurse (RN). For the first several years of my career, I worked in the long-term care, medical-surgical and cardiac nursing fields to gain valuable experience. I completed my Bachelor of Science (BS) with a major in nursing at The Pennsylvania State University in 2004. It was around that time that I was promoted to the role of clinical nurse educator at the hospital where I worked and I discovered my love of teaching. In 2008, I completed my Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) at Robert Morris University (RMU) with a focus in Nursing Education and began teaching nursing students at the program where I graduated. I successfully passed the Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) examination in 2012. In 2014, I was promoted to director of nursing at the SRHS School of Nursing. Inspiring others to become a nurse and teaching nursing students is my passion. I began my doctoral education journey in May 2016 with the Instructional Management and Leadership (IML) PhD Program at Robert Morris University. In September 2016, I was honored to be selected as the Director of Nursing at Westminster College. I am happy to report that I successfully defended my doctoral disseration entitled "Facilitating Student Success on Examinations: A Qualitative, Exploratory of Four Diploma Nursing Programs" on March 20th, 2019. I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to being called Dr. Ryan but I can attest to education always being worth the time and effort. In the summer, I am a nurse at Camp Turner in Salamanca, New York. My career in nursing has been more than I ever imagined........... Oh, and have I mentioned, I love being a nurse!