I am proud to be a Family Nurse Practitioner serving a community in the Hudson Valley of rural upstate New York State. There are few Physicians in our area, so there is tremendous opportunity for the adventurous and hard working types in our profession. I am in my tenth year at Ellenville Regional Hospital and have seen this facility come out of bankruptcy to an organization that has not recorded a financial loss in the last eight years. We have assisted in changing the Medical Staff Bylaws so that Nurse Practitioners can have equal rights and benefits to those of Physicians and following that I was elected by only physicians in a three person race to be President of the Medical Staff of Ellenville Regional Hospital. I have since been reelected two more times and I am in my third two year term. I am Clinical Director of Emergency Medicine and work with a team of nurse practitioners and physician assistants serving a population that receives 13,500 visits a year.