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Dr. David Reyes
Message from the Dean
A Message from the Dean… Greetings UWT SNHCL Community! Happy Spring! While it’s been a year since our last newsletter was published, there have been a lot of great things happening in our school to share. This year we welcomed three new amazing staff to the Academic Services team, Kamryn Hughes (Clinical Placement Manager), Sarah deBack (Outreach & Recruitment Specialist), and Adrianna Plavetsky (Academic Advisor). In addition, two new faculty joined our school, Dr. Jodi Erickson and Dr. Leodoro Labrague.
This year, our school completed its self-study in preparation for our 10-year Academic Programs Review by UW’s Graduate School Council (GSC). I am pleased to report that the GSC commended our school on the strength of our programs, faculty, and students, and recommended that the next full review occur in 10 years (2034-2035). I want to thank all our staff, faculty, students, and community partners who participated in the review process. The success of our review demonstrates confidence in our commitment and dedication toward academic excellence, meaningful scholarship, community engagement and service.
SNHCL continues to make progress on our academic plan toward offering a pre-licensure BSN program and developing a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree program. Many thanks to Dr. Sunny Cheng and Dr. Katie Haerling who serve as UWT SNHCL’s representatives to UW’s Tri-campus School of Nursing pre-licensure BSN Curriculum Task Force who are charged with developing a pre-licensure BSN common curriculum across all three School of Nursing campuses – UW Bothell, UW Seattle, and UW Tacoma. Kudos to the Graduate Program Committee who stewarded our new MN curriculum program that graduated its first cohort at the end of winter quarter. The Healthcare Leadership Program committee is engaged in reviewing and revising the current curriculum to ensure that students are practice ready to meet the current and emerging healthcare workforce needs.
The end of the academic year will bring transitions among our faculty. We will be saying farewell to Dr. Denise Drevdahl and Dr. Patsy Maloney, both of whom are retiring at the end of spring quarter. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them both for their academic and scholarly contributions to the School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership and the countless hours of student mentorship and service leadership that have advanced the vision and mission of our school and the UW Tacoma community. We wish them both the best in the future!
While we bid farewell to Drs. Drevdahl and Maloney, this fall we will welcome the school’s two new Assistant Teaching Professor faculty members, Dr. Carmen Lewis, and Dr. Tim Feagan, both of whom have taught as part-time lecturers in SNHCL’s undergraduate and graduate programs. We look forward to them joining as full-time faculty full-time capacity this fall!
I want to thank and recognize SNHCL’s administrative staff who are a dedicated team of professionals and the backbone of our school’s academic operations. In May, we celebrated National Nurses Day and the over 5.7 million nurses engaged in the care, health and well-being of patients, families, and communities across the nation. I especially want to acknowledge our faculty whose contributions as academic educators are in preparing our students with the skills and knowledge to address health challenges in increasingly complex healthcare systems and environments.
In closing, I want to share some exciting news that will provide future support to UW Tacoma’s School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership. Due to the generosity of UW Seattle School of Nursing alumna Patty Hayes, MN, RN and her support of our school’s vision and mission, SNHCL will be the recipient of two bequeathed endowments. These bequests will establish both the Patty Longstreet Hayes Endowed Professorship in Public Health Policy & Healthcare Leadership and the Patty Longstreet Hayes Endowed Program Support Fund. Our school is eternally grateful to Patty, whose nursing leadership is inspirational and transformative.
Finally, spring quarter will soon be over, and we will be celebrating the accomplishments of our school’s BAHCL, BSN, and MN classes of 2025. This year’s Commencement and graduation ceremony will be held on Friday, June 13th at the Tacoma Dome. I hope you will join me on this special day to celebrate all our graduates!
In Community…
David Reyes, DNP, MPH, RN, PHNA-BC
Dean, School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership
Don Minhas
Inspired to Help Others by Becoming a Versatile Healthcare Leader
Don Minhas was first drawn to the healthcare field as a child, after accompanying his mother to work, as a nurse. He was fascinated by the healthcare environment. This experience made him want to work in healthcare and help people. Don knew he did not want to be a nurse but did not know exactly what role would be a good fit for him.
Don’s cousin enrolled in UW Tacoma’s School of Nursing and Healthcare Leadership’s Bachelor of Arts Healthcare Leadership (BAHCL) program and told him how great the program was since it prepared the students to become healthcare leaders. Because of his interest in healthcare and his cousin’s recommendation of the BAHCL program, Don decided to pursue the BAHCL degree. Don thinks the one-on-one learning, one-on-one office hours, and the practicable skills learned in the classes make the BAHCL program unique.
Don credits his fieldwork experience in the BAHCL program in helping him get his first healthcare job at Kaiser Permanente as Patient Care Coordinator. Kaiser Permanente asked him about his fieldwork project experience which was an ongoing project at MultiCare as well as about his experience using Tableau during the program. Don had learned how to use Tableau in both of his Informatics classes.
Don worked at Kaiser Permanente for two years and during that time got promoted to a trainer for new employees and then as a backup lead. Although leaving his position at Kaiser Permanente was a difficult decision, Don Minhas chose to pursue his Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) full-time at UW Seattle. Don wanted an in-person learning environment and always wanted to pursue the Master of Healthcare Administration as a next step in his healthcare trajectory.
During the first summer in between his MHA program, Don worked with Fred Hutch at New Mexico State University – working with three students from UW Seattle and four students from New Mexico State University (NMSU). The first week was conducted virtually but, the second week they went to NMSU to do fieldwork and understand health disparities at the U.S. and Mexican border. Specifically this focus was on indigenous land and cancer, as a health disparity. Don will be volunteering, observing, and packing up food at the border. He is excited to learn about another healthcare system outside of Washington state.
After returning to Washington, Don started his internship at Valley Medical and worked with their process improvement team. He visited each clinic to figure out what is working well, what is not, and what type of changes could be made. He has prior work experience in process improvement as well as gained more knowledge in the process improvement class in his Master of Health Administration program that can be applicable to his internship.
After he finishes his Master of Healthcare Administration program, he wants to give back and mentor BAHCL students and help them build connections within an organization. After he graduates, he hopes to get a leadership/managerial role in project management, assistant facilities administrator (AFA) role, or managing clinics and then later on to consulting roles in healthcare.
He recommends future BAHCL students build connections, keep class notes, and enjoy the two years of the BAHCL program because these are formative years that will help them as a professional and as a student. As a Master’s student, he still refers back to his notes from his classes in the BAHCL program to see how he did certain things since there is an overlap of some material in his MHA program.
Don said sometimes you have to sacrifice and take a lower-level role to get the experience first. You will need to show your employer that you are dedicated, committed to the organization, and are a good worker.
Dr. Sharon Laing
SNHCL Professor’s Unwavering Commitment to the Community and Her Students
Dr. Sharon Laing spent most of her life in academia so it seemed like a natural progression to work in higher education. Dr. Laing chose UW Tacoma because she was compelled by its mission. Four of UW Tacoma’s pillars that stood out for her were diversity, access, community, and student success. Additionally, the student body attracted Dr. Laing to UW Tacoma. She observed that the opportunity to work with first generation and non-traditional students can give faculty the opportunity to have greater impact.
Dr. Laing did her undergraduate degree in Developmental Psychology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada where she grew up and trained as a health psychologist with a specialization in community health and wellness. Dr. Laing later obtained her Master of Science and PhD in Developmental/Health Psychology at Howard University. After she completed her doctoral degree, she did a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University where she examined the role of social and physical environments in affecting the physical health of the community. Specifically, she worked in the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers University where she and her colleagues researched the respiratory and neurocognitive functions of bridge painters exposed to occupational work hazards in New York City. Dr. Laing completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the UW School of Public Health where she engaged employers of low-resourced workplaces and supported them in health promotive practices for their employees.
Sharon Laing has engaged in several community-engaged initiatives. In 2023, through 2024, Dr. Laing and Dr. Monica Vavilala, Professor and Anesthesiologist at Harborview Medical Center, partnered with the Criminal Justice Department and the Office of Public Defenders in King County to derive strategies for supporting students in their school environments to enhance school safety. In 2024, she worked with Dr. Alireza Boloori in the Milgard School of Business to analyze data addressing hospital metrics, such as length of stay, number of health-based procedures and number of providers attending to the patient - and the impact of these factors on hospital re-admission rates and mortality among patients in Pierce County Washington, who historically present with poor health outcomes.
Dr. Laing’s current work is a collaboration with Drs. Kathleen Shannon-Dorcy, Zaher Kmail and a local community health center to address burnout among healthcare professionals working in these facilities. The objective of this work is to support community health centers to identify feasible and sustainable evidence-based approaches to promote provider well-being in the centers. Sharon Laing enjoys teaching SNHCL students and helping her students to be thoughtful about research including how to interpret research studies and forming their own judgements in the classes she teaches, and one such class is THLEAD 350, Critical Analysis and Writing. She also engages students in high-impact practices such as serving as faculty lead in Healthcare Leadership fieldwork, and providing research opportunities to students in the program; fieldwork and research engagement are available to students at UW Tacoma. Dr. Laing offers the following recommendations to support student success:
- Actively reach out to and engage with your professors while enrolled in the program.
- Learn about the available campus resources, including those that support students’
success found at the UWT Student Affairs website, Student Affairs | Student Affairs |
University of Washington Tacoma. - Stay in contact with your professors and peers after you graduate.
- Establish a LinkedIn account to support professional networking opportunities.
Holly Wetzel
Strategic Leadership in Action: Holly Wetzel’s Impact on Student Government at UW Tacoma
After completing two transformative terms as student body president, Holly Wetzel has redefined student leadership through her strategic vision and insights from UW Tacoma’s Bachelor of Arts in Healthcare Leadership (BAHCL) program.
"Working as a patient transporter during the pandemic revealed my leadership path," Holly shared. I initially came to UW Tacoma studying to become a doctor, but after three years of witnessing firsthand how the healthcare system and government responded to the pandemic, while also leading on-campus health initiatives, I realized that my strengths aren't in being a frontline caregiver, they were in driving systemic change for caregivers. This led me to enroll in the Healthcare Leadership program.”
Upon assuming ASUWT’s presidency in 2023, Holly identified structural gaps that limited sustainable progress and accountability. “I saw an organization with great potential, but lacking systems for long-lasting change,” she explained. "Previous ASUWT initiatives, while well-intentioned, often came from individual interests rather than comprehensive student input and data-driven priorities, which made it a challenge for the organization to sustain long-term."
She launched an internal reform plan that introduced clear accountability, formalized decision-making, and built data-informed systems. “By implementing data-driven advocacy and strategic planning, we created a foundation where student government can consistently deliver meaningful results,” Holly said.
One of her key innovations was launching a Task Force division focused on critical student issues identified through the National College Health Assessment (NCHA). Three initial Task Forces focused on Food Insecurity, Campus Safety, and Health and Wellness. Each was led by a team of three to four students and conducted campus-wide surveys that reached 15 percent of the student body. Holly guided each team in analyzing results and turning them into actionable recommendations presented to university leadership and at the Chancellor’s town hall.
Holly stated that as a result, “ASUWT was able to show UW Tacoma leadership exactly where resources could have the greatest impact.” ASUWT successfully advocated for centralized basic needs support, improved campus lighting in collaboration with the city, and launched recurring wellness weeks.
In her second term, Holly expanded the Task Force model to include Inclusive Access and Campus Development. Her team also rebuilt ASUWT’s legislative arm, enabling more robust state-level advocacy. “Students told us they wanted stronger representation in state government,” Holly noted. “So, we built the systems to make that happen.”
This led to a record turnout of over 80 UW Tacoma students at Huskies on the Hill, a collaborative effort between UW Seattle, UW Bothell, and UW Tacoma to bring students down to Olympia and speak with legislators about student priorities. Now, Holly is leading the development of a dedicated student fee to fund student legislative efforts, backed by student survey data showing strong support.
Holly acknowledges the collective effort of her team, “Every win and structural change we achieved came from the dedication of our Executive Board, Senators, Task Force Members, and support staff who believed in what student government could be.”
Holly credits the BAHCL program with enhancing her leadership through faculty with real-world experience, intimate class settings, and flexible schedules that allowed her to balance academics and leadership.
“My advice to BAHCL students is to create your own path and take every opportunity for hands-on leadership,” she advised. “The most transformative growth comes when you apply classroom concepts in real-world settings and take on challenges that push you.”
Now approaching graduation, Holly plans to pursue leadership in the public and nonprofit sectors, focusing on removing structural barriers that impact the social determinants of health. “My UW Tacoma experience reinforced my commitment to systemic change,” she said. “Whether that's through program development, legislative advocacy, or some kind of organizational leadership position, my hope is to create sustainable long-term solutions that make a tangible difference in my community.”
Holly Wetzel’s story exemplifies the power of applied learning, demonstrating how academic knowledge, paired with impactful leadership, can create meaningful institutional and community impact.
Peter Mendy
Nursing Gives You the Skillset to Succeed in Life
Peter Mendy, an alum of both SNHCL’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Master of Nursing (MN) programs, had not thought about becoming a nurse initially. He explored teaching and considered a career becoming a physician. However, because of advice from his career-advisor at college, and some research in healthcare careers, Peter chose to become a nurse. The core principles of nursing aligned with his own beliefs, and he envisioned a career that would allow him to have an impact on people.
Peter has no regrets in choosing nursing as a career path. Nursing has been rewarding and continues to be fulfilling in all aspects, to this day!
The Master of Nursing Degree pathway has helped Peter professionally in many ways. He cited UW Tacoma (UWT) as a top-tier institution with high caliber faculty that prepared him for decision making and problem-solving real-life challenges. The foundation of UWT education he articulated, particularly the MN program, helped him translate patient care on a bigger scale, broadening his vision on the community and its needs.
UW Tacoma’s Master of Nursing program is unique because of its academic prowess, student-faculty ratio, as well as the convenience of class schedules for working adults.
As Senior Director of Operations at Kaiser Permanente, Peter and his team are often looking at ways to improve care outcomes, addressing access to care, and keeping care affordability for the large and diverse needs of the community that Kaiser Permanente serves.
Peter profoundly believes that Nursing is a career of “no regrets”. Nursing gives you many skillsets, whether it is taking care of patients at the bedside, designing programs and policies, evaluating systems, promoting health, advocating for homelessness and the underprivileged, and so on. A career in nursing is fulfilling and sets you apart because you have a clear conscious of right and wrong while caring for fellow human beings.
There is no other career that gives you what you need to succeed in life than nursing.
Listen to Peter's Meet & Greet Podcast episode, Nursing Gives You the Skillset to Succeed in Life.
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