It’s almost time for school! Join speakers Linda Mendonca, President of the National Association of School Nurses, and Tammy Alexander, VP of State Relations at the School-Based Health Alliance. Their presentation will explore the impact of the COVID pandemic on school-based health and the growing role of school nurses. Additionally, Clarissa Collier, a school nurse based in Philadelphia, will share her personal experience educating students and parents about the COVID vaccine through a collaborative pilot project with NNCC and a local museum. This webinar is part of our Nurse-Led Forum on Vaccine Confidence.
Learning Objectives:
Tammy Alexander has worked in the school-based health care field at the state and national level since 1993 and joined the School-Based Health Alliance in 2016. Her current work at SBHA includes state relations, policy, technical assistance and training, consulting, oral health, and assorted duties as assigned. When she is working with communities and states who are deep into planning and implementing school-based health care, she is in her happy place. Tammy's undergraduate degree is from Oregon State. She completed her Masters’s in Education at the University of Virginia in 1979. When she is not working, you can find her organizing camping trips with her husband, dog, and numerous family and friends, trying to see all our country’s natural wonders.
Clarissa Collier is a School Nurse in the School District of Philadelphia. This will be her seventh school year in the district and every year she looks for new ways to reach her students, staff, and parents when it comes to the health, wealth, and safety within the school and surrounding community. Those who know her might think of her as a "Jack of all Trades." Her full-time position is as a School Nurse but she still works in the hospital and teaches as well. She has much experience with the inpatient and the outpatient worlds within healthcare and much of her experiences are what continue to drive her with helping many others in need. She looks forward sharing more in this webinar to motivate other school nurses.
Linda Mendonça has been a registered nurse for 42 years practicing school nursing for 25 years, overseas and in five states as a military spouse. Her school nursing career includes experience with pre-K to high school students in many states. She has vast experience with current best practice and new initiatives in school health, including the need for data collection in school nursing practice to best meet the needs of students and facilitate their academic success. With the practice of school nursing in the arena of public health, Linda pursued education and certification in public health nursing. Linda earned her Master of Science in advanced public health nursing and her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Transformative Systems Leadership from Rush University in Chicago. She has served on school nursing organization boards on the state and national levels. Dr. Mendonça is President of the National Association of School Nurses (2021-2023) and a Fellow in the National Academy of School Nursing. Her current professional roles include being an Assistant Professor teaching community/public health nursing at Rhode Island College School of Nursing and providing consultation in school nursing for the Rhode Island Department of Health. One of her passions is environmental health and she was selected to participate in a year long fellowship with the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environnent 2019-2020. Throughout her career, Dr. Mendonça made time to volunteer with the American Red Cross and disaster medical assistance teams with medical reserve corps.