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ALUMNI
SPOTLIGHT
It was the night of the pinning ceremony at Brown-Lupton University
Union. The 60 graduating seniors from the 2013 class of Harris College
of Nursing were anxiously waiting to receive the pins that would mark
their transition from student to real-world nurse. After the last senior
came up onto the stage, Dean Paulette Burns paused and made a
surprising announcement. “We have one more pin to give away,”
she said.
She then began to read the letter that graduating senior,
Erica
Skinner ‘13
, had written for a woman who had become her inspiration
and friend,
Karen Annette Leshe Pemberton ‘72
. It said, “As a young
woman, Karen lived in several group homes until she entered Texas
Christian University as a freshman. With little financial or emotional
support, she began her college career at TCU with the hopes of
becoming a registered nurse and making a difference in the lives
of others.”
When Pemberton graduated from TCU in 1972, she didn’t have the
money to buy a pin (today, pins cost between $75 and $300). Back then,
what little money Pemberton did have was going towards paying for
life on her own. But more than that, “Karen didn’t feel like going to the
pinning ceremony because she didn’t have any family to watch her —
to support her,” says Skinner.
Skinner, 23, works as anoperating roomnurse atTexas Health Southwest
Hospital. She met Pemberton through her boyfriend Chase, who is
Pemberton’s son, and wanted to give her the pin she’d always deserved.
So she bought it as a surprise and had it engraved with Pemberton’s
initials, KAP, for the ceremony.
Today, Pemberton works for Kindred Home Care as a utilization
specialist. She’s spent the majority of her career focusing on
rehabilitation and hospice care, starting several inpatient and
outpatient services across the Metroplex, as well as serving two stints
as vice president of Easter Seals of North Texas.
“She’s made a big difference,” Skinner says. “I thought it was about time
someone recognized her for that.”
That evening in the auditorium, when the dean called Pemberton’s
name, everyone stood up and applauded the work and life of a
wonderful nurse. Pemberton cried. And that night, she got the support,
family and pin she’d missed 42 years ago.
“I never expected that,” says Pemberton. “It was a random act
of kindness.”
Dawn Dalpe Welliver ’12 (DNP)
After graduating from TCU, Welliver
has continued to practice clinically as a nurse anesthetist and recently
accepted an editor position with the
Anesthesia eJournal
and an adjunct
faculty position with the Old Dominion Nurse Anesthesia Program. She
writes that the skills she learned as a DNP student have expanded her
professional development and productivity.
Welliver’s work on the negative effects of herbal products has
been published in
Pharmacologic Matters of Herbal Supplements in
Gastroenterology Nursing
and in a soon-to-be-published textbook about
drug interactions, for which she is also an editor. In addition, she has co-
authored an exemplary of the evidenced-based analysis process used in
a review of risks associated with tattoo inks and epidural insertion for a
nursing textbook.
Her husband, Mark, works at TCU as an associate professor of professional
practice in the School of Nurse Anesthesia. They renewed their wedding
vows this summer in a special ceremony with their two daughters,
Vanessa and Victoria.
Allison Nantz ’13 (BSN)
graduated with her
nursing degree last December and is currently
working on the cardiac telemetry floor at UT
Southwestern in Dallas specializing in left ventricular
assist devices (LVACs), heart and lung transplants
and congestive heart failure patients. She works
alongside her fellow TCU alumna and friend Kelly
O’Donnell ’13.
Marcel Turner ’14 (MS KIN)
has taken a position as a research associate
in the cerebrovascular lab at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental
Medicine in Dallas. In this role, he serves as study coordinator for a multi-
year research project investigating how exercise may attenuate the
effects of Alzheimer’s disease in an elderly population.
By Sarah Angle
ALUMNI
36
·
The Harris College Magazine
- 2014