Nov 15, 2019

Students in the RN to B.S. in Nursing program at St. Bonaventure University marked the week of Veterans Day with a presentation by a member of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service.

Lieutenant Commander Trisha Wright of Kane, Pennsylvania, a quality improvement and infection control coordinator for the Public Health Service, talked about her duties and career opportunities within the Corps.

One of the seven uniformed services of the United States and a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Commissioned Corps is composed of more than 6,500 officers who work on the front lines of public health — fighting disease, conducting research, and caring for patients in underserved communities.

Wright is detailed at the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons at FCI McKean in Bradford, Pennsylvania, as a nurse practitioner and the quality improvement/infectious disease coordinator.

“It was a very impactful presentation,” said Connie Perkins, Ph.D., RN, CNE, founding director of nursing in St. Bonaventure’s School of Health Professions. “Trisha informed us about her branch of the service and her deployment to Liberia during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014.”

Wright earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, a master’s in family nurse practitioner from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, and is studying for a doctor of nursing practice from Clarion. She has worked as an RN at Kane Community Hospital, Kane, Pennsylvania, and as an athletic trainer in the Kane Area School District.

After her presentation, Wright stood for a photo with nursing program director Perkins; Erin Lundeen, MSN, RN, CSN, a lecturer in the nursing program; and Jason Everett of Olean, a U.S. Air Force veteran and nursing student.

Everett served in the Air Force from 2000 to 2005 and was deployed to the Middle East for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He works for the Council on Addiction and Recovery Services in Olean, where he runs the medication assisted treatment and psychiatry unit. Prior to that he was an emergency department nurse at Bradford Regional Medical Center, Bradford, Pa.

For information on St. Bonaventure’s RN to B.S. in Nursing program, visit www.sbu.edu/nursing.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. In 2019, St. Bonaventure was named the #1 regional university value in New York and #2 in the North by U.S. News and World Report.