Announcing: Dr. Reed

I just got off the phone with my mom - she is now Dr. Reed!

She has successfully defended her doctoral thesis in front of the review committee at Case Western Reserve University, and is slated to receive her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree later this year in Cleveland.

My aunt Laurel, who went with mom to Cleveland this weekend for moral support, tells me the committee told Mom she has plenty of material and research she could publish articles on and they encouraged her to copyright a scale she developed to interpret students' experience with patient simulators.

They also told her they were impressed with how humble she is, taking into account her large amount of knowledge on simulators. As Laurel put it, they told her she shouldn't "hide her light under a bushel."

I am very proud of my mom for her hard work and persistence over the past two years as she's worked to get this degree. She is smart, savvy and a good example to all of us kids in her pursuit of education. She's done it all while working full-time at BYU, taking trips to Ecuador with the nursing program and also to work in an orphanage with my siblings, being a mom and a mentor to her children, and picking up extra shifts here and there in OB care at the U of U. The list goes on. She's had a lot on her plate and despite all the stressors, has managed it and come out successful.