Laura White ’85, Ph.D. ’10, RN, CPNP, a pediatric nurse practitioner who is interested in integrative health care, youth development, and mental health, is a new clinical assistant professor. White earned a master’s degree in pediatric primary care from Columbia University in 1990 and then provided primary care, HIV-related nursing, and other services as a pediatric nurse practitioner in three New York City and Boston-area hospitals during the 1990s.
In recent years, she has worked as a per-diem school nurse in her hometown of Ashland, Mass., and taught part-time at the Connell School and Simmons College. Since 2011, White has cared for adolescents receiving treatment for mental health disorders, most recently at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, Mass. An advocate of safe and evidence-based integrative therapies, she plans to augment her published dissertation research on mindful yoga’s ability to reduce stress in school-age girls. “Nurses have a responsibility to investigate any type of health care that can make a difference in facilitating well-being,” she said. “I want to help nurse practitioners see health care as a way to increase human flourishing.”
—by Debra Bradley Ruder, photograph by Caitlin Cunningham