Meet Our 2021-22 Scholarship Recipients
Meet our scholarship recipients for 2021-22!
Alyesha Tsegga
Aleysha Tsegga is the recipient of the Spratlen Family Scholar of Promise award.
At the time of the award, she was a third-year doctoral student in the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program at Seattle University at the time of her award. Through her doctoral studies, she desires to learn how to be an impactful servant leader in mental health for the Black community.
Aleysha's long-term goal is to practice within the pediatric population where impoverished communities of color struggle to find qualified mental health professionals. By using an evidence-based practice alongside holistic treatment approaches, Aleysha aims to deconstruct the psychological impact of internalized racism within her community.
Her commitment to ensuring she serves these communities stems from the shortage of Black representation in role model settings she encountered as a child. As an adult, Aleysha has experienced how powerful it can be to have Black professors, attorneys, politicians, and medical providers by your side when encountering systems of imbedded oppression. By providing an outlet to underserved children in the Black community, Aleysha hopes to make an impact on our future.
Holly Brezynski
Holly Brezynski was a third-year Doctorate of Nursing student in UW’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner track at the time of her award. She was maintaining a 3.96 GPA while managing her four children's schooling throughout the pandemic.
As a domestic violence survivor, Holly remembers mental health services were vital to her escape and recovery. She is passionate about removing the silence and stigma surrounding partner violence and believes her role as PMHNP will further help her empower others in this situation.
Holly’s professional goal is to work in a collaborative community behavioral health setting that supports adults living with complex mental health needs: chronic mental illness, trauma, and substance use disorders.For her doctorate nursing project, Holly is partnering with the Washington Health Care Authority & DSHS Aging and Long-Term Support Administration's Dementia Action Collaborative (DAC) to identify gaps in the discharge planning process that can lead to higher readmission rates for those living with dementia.
Spencer Hendricks
Spencer Hendricks was in his final year of Gonzaga University's Master of Science in Nursing Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program when he received his award. He hopes to bring this commitment into his future practice in mental health and his efforts to expand community mental health services.
Spencer experiences really impressed upon him that there is value and meaning in partnering with people in difficult circumstances. He is passionate about being a mental health resource and increasing access and availability of mental health resources for his community.
His short-term professional goals are to begin practicing in Walla Walla County and partner with local agencies to serve community members with mental health needs and limited access to health care services. His long-term professional goals are to expand the availability and accessibility of mental health services in Walla Walla County and to precept future advanced-practice psychiatric nursing students.
Sarah Kim
Sarah Kim was a second-year DNP student in the University of Washington’s Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program when she received her award. Her goal is to build a more robust community through which patients can receive quality mental health care.
Sarah’s experiences in mental health settings across the continuum of care have given her keen insight into the systems and institutions through which care is delivered. Seeing the gaps in mental health care with patients “falling through the cracks” inspired her interest in improving and streamlining those systems.
Sarah currently works at a community mental health clinic. She constantly seeks to expand her knowledge of psychiatry and mental health practice. Her published work has focused on the opioid epidemic and sharing awareness with clinicians about substances that can cause opioid-like dependence and withdrawal, while her academic work has explored ways to improve care for adolescents in inpatient mental health settings. Her vision for mental health care involves integrating behavioral health care with primary care and increasing access for individuals in crisis through behavioral health urgent care clinics.
Solee Lim
Solee Lim was a second-year Doctor of Nursing in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at the University of Washington when she received her award. Over the years, she has learned that nurses can have a powerful impact not only on patients' lives but also on the lives of their families and, by extension, on the community. That is the biggest reason she pursued a Doctorate of Nursing Practice.
Solee’s passion for psychiatric nursing became a goal after working on a unit assigned to caring for patients with mental illnesses. Her time with these patients made her determined to be a part of the solution. She is convinced she has an important role in psychiatric nursing, especially when it comes to educating the Korean-American community. She is determined to provide culturally appropriate care and education on the importance of mental health.
Amber Spencer
Amber Spencer was a third-year Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student in the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) program at Pacific Lutheran University at the time of her award.
After graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2013, Amber began her nursing career in Baltimore, MD working in an inner-city Emergency Department. Throughout her career in the Emergency Department, she witnessed firsthand the lack of mental health resources in her community. Amber observed that inadequate mental health resources resulted in unacceptable patient care, increased healthcare disparities, and poor outcomes for patients suffering from mental illnesses. Her experience shaped her career goals — she determined the best way to serve her community was to become a psychiatric mental health provider.
Amber has a passion for the mental health of homeless youth, which drove her to develop and implement a translational research project aimed at increasing mental health service utilization, using motivational interviewing in the population of homeless youth. Amber’s long-term goals are to provide psychiatric care in an integrated community health model, where she can help reduce mental health disparities by increasing access to mental health providers.
Linda Trader
Linda Trader was a third-year Doctoral Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner student at Pacific Lutheran University when she received her award. Linda’s interest in psychiatry and mental health developed when she was a staff RN and Charge Nurse in an emergency department in Pierce County, Washington.
While a RN and Charge Nurse, Linda identified that mental health is often a co-morbidity of those in dire need of emergent medical care and that a large percentage of this population consists of those from underserved communities who are most impacted by social determinants of health that contribute to poor health outcomes. She found that a common barrier for these individuals was difficulty accessing collaborative and integrated mental health care.
Linda’s final months of her advanced education were spent developing the future of the nursing profession through her role as a faculty nursing instructor at St. Martin’s University. She hopes to share her personal experiences as a first-generation college student and passion for helping others through mentorship, advocacy, and advancement of the professional nursing role. After graduation, her goal is to increase access to care for underserved populations.