Learning with Loren Sapphire Kelly '96
Loren Sapphire Kelly '96 has been teaching in a Nursing program at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing for more than nine years, focusing on public health and community engagement.
“I love teaching and working with students while fostering their aspirations to become future nurses,” she said. “I see myself as more of a facilitator of learning in partnership with the students so that we are learning together.”
Kelly’s position gives her the independence to be creative in how she designs and teaches her courses.
“I have the opportunity to be part of many collaborations and partnerships. I’ve been able to lead clinical experiences in global health in Kenya, Mexico, and Costa Rica,” she said. “One of my favorite experiences is taking students twice a year for a two-week rural health clinical practicum at Navajo Nation in Chinle, Arizona."
Kelly’s appreciation for traveling and providing health care in rural settings began when she was a student at Castleton during a community health rotation. There, she spent several days working alongside a nurse – driving on dirt roads and making home visits – doing wound care and providing education to patients.
“I loved the freedom and autonomy of that role,” Kelly said. “That experience opened my eyes to rural health and made me see the role of the community health nurse in going out into the community and enabling people to remain in their homes and maintain their lifestyle.”
After earning her degree from Castleton and working locally for a few years, Kelly and her husband, James – a fellow Nursing program alumnus who graduated in 1998 – traded in Vermont’s mountain views for the red rock vistas of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kelly worked as a traveling nurse during her first few years out west. This experience, she said, deepened her regard for rural medicine.
“Working in the ICU with patients from rural and marginalized communities, who were coming in with chronic and often preventable conditions, made me aware of the social determinants of health and the health disparities faced by so many individuals and communities,” Kelly said.
In addition to her passion for teaching and health care, Kelly has had a lifelong love of singing and performing. When Carnegie Hall celebrated its 100th anniversary, she had the opportunity to perform with the Masterwork Chorus. Currently, she sings soprano with Quintessence, a choir in Albuquerque that performs concerts throughout the year, including a summer choral festival.
Always looking for new ways to engage with the public in her career, Kelly is about to embark on another phase and is starting a program to become a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner.
“Nursing has been a far more personally and professionally gratifying career than I ever imagined. When I graduated from Castleton, I didn’t know exactly what area of nursing I would end up in,” she said. “Everything unfolded and my skills and experiences all built upon one another so that my career evolved with a great variety of experiences and settings from a teaching hospital to the pueblo."