Amy Renee, DNP, ARNP, PMHNP-BC
Student Member of the Year
The Student Member of the Year Award honors a current student member who demonstrates academic and clinical excellence while offering unique contributions to their learning community. This year the AAPPN is proud to recognize Amy Renee as the 2021 Student Member of the Year Award recipient.
Amy graduated from the University of Washington Doctoral of Nursing Practice, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program with high honors in March 2021. She was recognized for her incredible interpersonal skills that translated to positive influence and steady force for her peers during the rigorous DNP study.
As a person/provider of color, my intent is to combat racial disparities by providing culturally competent and responsive care through a lens of intersectionality.
AMy Renee
As a charge nurse at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Amy provided clinical leadership and caring for children and adolescents living with mental disorders. Colleaugues describe Amy as someone with an equitable eye who will clearly continue to be a strong advocate for her families. She plans to utilize her lived experience as a black female teenager who experienced homelessness, to create and deliver innovative, evidence-based care to disadvantaged adolescents in King County.
Amy currently contributes to AAPPN through participation in the CAYA group.
What would you tell a person just starting a DNP-PMHNP program? And those who are people of color?
Give it your all and trust the process. A DNP-PMHNP program is extremely rigorous but remarkably gratifying as well. Soak up every moment and prepare to not only expand your knowledge base, but also designate time for self-discovery through invaluable introspection. To my fellow people of color, thank you and I see you. Please bring your opinions, experiences, and perspectives as they are truly wanted and vital to grow collectively as a profession, community, and people.
How do your experiences as a person of color impact your future goals as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner?
My focus, as I continue to build my practice, is working with adolescents and adults in underserved communities with limited access to care, and those who are a part of the unhoused population that I once was a part of. As a person/provider of color, my intent is to combat racial disparities by providing culturally competent and responsive care through a lens of intersectionality. I aspire to be an example to others and will assist in reframing the mental health care system from my everyday interactions to advocating and eliciting policy change.
What role has AAPPN played in your career and for the profession?
The AAPPN was an immense support throughout my education as a student and continues to be as a new psychiatric nurse practitioner. AAPPN is a hub for countless resources, trainings, and opportunities for networking in our profession. While giving me a sense of belonging, it has been a pillar helping bridge the gap from a close-knit graduate student cohort, to being a provider in private practice. It offers a foundation that boosts my confidence as a new provider and offers stability as a point of reference to use throughout my career.