She found solace in pushing herself hard teaching and working toward her doctorate. However, she primarily immersed herself in family matters. She warns me that this might sound silly, but she was worried that if she died from the cancer her husband wouldn’t know how to match the colors of his business clothes. She put color tabs on them and matched colors with his other fashion items. “You’re unsure of your future, and the first thing you think about is what will happen to your family,” she explains. Doing small things like this kept her mind off her disease. But her horses were her true saviors. Her face brightens when she begins to talk about how her horses helped her through that trying time. The mare she competed with during that time, Scarlet’s Sweet Girl, still lives with her and has produced several foals who have gone on to be champions for All and others. She echoes the belief of horse whisperers: that horses represent the highest human ideals and are associated with the bravest and best of humanity. Their courage gave her courage. All lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the time and developed an interest in horses with her husband and son. Her son spent several years in 4-H and All was the sideline cheerleader. They rode the Cheyenne countryside together, and their love for horses grew like the sand-colored grass on the Wyoming prairie beneath the Rocky Mountains.

Now she’s ready for a new challenge, building an MSN program at AU and AUM designed to teach nurses how to be nursing educators and advance practice nurses in the role of Clinical Nurse Specialist. Why have such an MSN program? Because the need for nursing faculty and nurses with advanced skills is critical to the future of nursing. “State Boards of Nursing across the country determine ratios of faculty and students in the clinical practicum setting” she says. “In short, we can’t enroll more nursing students unless we have more nursing educators to teach them.” The reason for the program, then, is obvious. There’s a dire need for more nurses, but without enough nursing educators to teach them, the country will continue to have a major nursing shortage. The nursing faculty are also graying and retiring, and no one is coming in to take their place, according to All.

“I’m excited to be on the ground floor in building a new nursing program,” she declares. “My goal is to increase numbers in the program. I’m working with recruiting materials and I’m also meeting with the nursing leadership around the state. I want to get the word out to BSN nurses that we have this program.” Another goal is accreditation, “but you have to have a graduating class before you can get the program accredited.” The Joint AU/AUM MSN program is currently laying the groundwork for this accreditation, so that program approval will occur as quickly as possible after the first cohort of students graduate. Her third goal is to keep us abreast of the national changes in nursing practice. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing notes that by 20 5 there will be a great need for advanced practice nurses. These nurses are highly specialized and must meet educational requirements beyond the master’s degree in nursing and exceed clinical practice requirements normally required for traditional advance practice nurses. Advanced practice nurses will revolutionize health care because they can handle 60-80 percent of primary and intermediate care normally handled by doctors at a fraction of the cost. Advanced practice nurses will serve another important function. Right now, according to All, we have a health system that treats illnesses but does little to promote good health that would prevent those illnesses. “Eating right, exercising and reducing stress can do people’s health a world of good,” she explains. “Who better to promote good health habits than a nurse? If we don’t begin to do this, more and more people will retire with chronic illnesses that could have been avoided.” All also understands the problems of working nurses who want to continue their education. “I’m a big proponent of distance education,” she says. “We can certainly touch more people’s lives through Internet education. We can take faculty development skills and turn these skills into new ways of teaching and learning.” She has good reason to support distance learning. While she was a full-time head nurse in a Wyoming family practice clinic, she commuted 60 miles to the University of Wyoming and later to the University of Northern Colorado to further her education. The commute was a tough one. “I remember commuting through snowstorms and sometimes wondered how I made it home through the blinding snow.” Her horses still bring her great comfort. Long ago, she learned to raise and show American quarter horses, and those horses have won Reserve World Championships at Palomino World and multiple National Snaffle Bit Association competitions in both the open and amateur competitions. All taught her horses to be winners. Now, she’s working to build a winning MSN program for AU and