Colorado NAPNAP colleagues,

I am happy to introduce myself as the President of your local, Colorado Rocky Mountain, NAPNAP chapter.  Despite that I cannot proudly claim the title as a "Colorado native", I have lived in Colorado for a little over 4 years, and have loved every minute of my time here. Although I will always be a "Sooner" at heart (receiving my bachelor's degree from the University of Oklahoma), I attended Graduate school at the University of Colorado, where I obtained my MSN, with a focus in Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.  I began my career as a Nurse Practitioner working as the Director of Quality and Nursing Education for a pediatric company, caring for children in the community with advanced healthcare needs. It wasn't long before I realized I missed more direct interaction with patients, and accepted a position in the Surgical Department at Children's Hospital Colorado. I have since enjoyed my role at CHC, working with a variety of highly esteemed specialty surgeons, preparing their patients for surgery.

My involvement with NAPNAP is fairly recent, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to network with other professionals in the field, and to advocate for our discipline during my time on the board. Serving as the President-elect last year, I was able to be involved in the incredibly successful "NAPNAP Night Out", where we celebrated the 50 year anniversary of the Nurse Practitioner discipline and boasted Loretta Ford, the "founding mother of Nurse Practitioner", as our guest speaker. I was blown away by the tireless efforts of our Public Relations committee to put together such an elegant event, and equally impressed by our Fundraising committee who prepared a generous raffle benefiting Family Link of the Local American Diabetes Association.  Despite the numerous benefits NAPNAP has offered to me as an involved member, the opportunity to work with such a fun, passionate, and intelligent group of colleagues is by far my most valued.

This is an especially exciting year for our chapter, as we have been selected to host the 38th National conference on Pediatric Health Care! This will be the first time for our chapter to host the National conference, and we are thrilled to welcome NAPNAP members from across the country to our wonderful home state. As our returning board members are already busy planning to make this the most memorable conference yet, I am hopeful to see some new faces at our board meetings and committee meetings! There are so many opportunities for our local members become involved during this eventful year, and we would love the chance to get acquainted with each of you. Although we are focusing most of our time and efforts towards the conference this year, and will not be hosting a formal "Night Out"; Our PR and Fundraising committees are working on a less formal "Happy Hour" event, to take place for our chapter during the national conference.

If you are interested in becoming involved in NAPNAP this year, please e-mail me for more information! Otherwise, I look forward to seeing each of you at the National Conference in the spring.

Sincerely,

Jessica Keester, C-PNP

Colorado Rocky Mountian Chapter President

Jessica.Keester@childrenscolorado.org

 See also: https://rmnapnap.enpnetwork.com/page/23981-2016-17-presidents-message-