Angie Golden\u2019s nursing career has gone places, from helping patients in the Grand Canyon to testifying on Capitol Hill\u2014and she credits her accomplishments to her nursing school experience at Northern Arizona University and the connections she made here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NAU alumna Dr. Angie Golden is past president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and is a Doctor of Nursing Practice. She has testified on healthcare policy before the US Senate, authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and presented at local and international conferences. She’s transported an infant out of the Grand Canyon by mule, jumped out of a helicopter to provide medical aid, and helped people through their final moments. She\u2019s worked untold hours as a nurse in every possible setting. She also taught nursing students at NAU for 14 years, and continued to mentor students after transitioning into private practice as a nurse practitioner. Her many accomplishments earned her the President\u2019s Alumni Award from NAU\u2019s College of Health and Human Services<\/a> in 2019. \u201cAll because I went to nursing school,\u201d she said. \u201cNo career has as many opportunities as nursing. There\u2019s no profession where I could have done all of that. And I\u2019m not done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While working on her Master of Science in Nursing<\/a> in 1998, she quickly came to realize the program and faculty were helping her reach her goals. She wanted the same for others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had great mentors immediately,\u201d she said. \u201cThe faculty truly became colleagues. They were working and teaching. It was a lived experience. Because of the type of education I received, I wanted to be in Flagstaff.\u201d Golden has exemplified that lived experience in her many roles on and off campus. From her office, located a stone\u2019s throw from NAU\u2019s main campus, she expresses her ironclad belief that her alma mater positively shapes students\u2019 lives. \u201cI have a very strong commitment to the program being successful and for people to be aware of what it offers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n NAU spent the time to determine what the best way to maintain the rigor of the program would be, while also making it reasonable to accomplish.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n She cites several examples of the university\u2019s student-centric philosophy. \u201cNAU was the only state school that would allow me to build on my first master\u2019s,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s an opportunity to look at what an individual has already done. But not a lot of nursing programs do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Golden credits NAU leaders for creating programs that serve students\u2019 needs, such as<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNAU spent the time to determine what the best way to maintain the rigor of the program would be, while also making it reasonable to accomplish,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a unique way to think about how to get nurses into the workforce. That\u2019s a strength in our College of Nursing. As an alum, it\u2019s kept me committed to the College of Nursing and NAU.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said her master\u2019s degree in nursing continues to serve her after more than four decades in the workforce, and credits NAU for providing her with the necessary expertise to lead a national organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe do that because of the leadership skills we got in our program and our mentors who told us we could,\u201d she said. The President\u2019s Alumni Award \u201cis as much about [the people who got me here] as it is about me. The connections we keep in our NAU alumni are really powerful opportunities for us to continue to move the profession forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Angie Golden\u2019s nursing career has gone places, from helping patients in the Grand Canyon to testifying on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":1959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1955"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5637,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1955\/revisions\/5637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legacy.nau.edu\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A rewarding career supported by mentors and colleagues<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Shaping the future of nursing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n