Laurie Anderson Glass ’00

Laurie Anderson Glass ’00 received her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree this past January from Walden University. She is one of only one percent of nurses in the United State who have their doctoral degree and the only nurse in UPMC Hamot’s NICU with this degree.

Laurie works in Magee-Women’s, UPMC Hamot’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). She has worked in the NICU for 10 years now. She said that she always knew that she wanted a career where she could work with babies because babies are her passion. When she was a senior at Mercyhurst Prep, she did an internship in a daycare. While she enjoyed her internship, she realized she wanted to get into nursing. She received her Bachelor of Nursing degree from Case Western University and became a NICU nurse. She was inspired to get her master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner, which she received from Wayne State University. But she wasn’t done quite yet. She feels that MPS inspired her to be a life-long learner and continue to learn and grow in order to help society in any way she can.

She decided to pursue her doctoral degree so that she could expand on her knowledge and try to answer the questions in practice that are out there that she felt could be answered a better way. She knew this would not be easy since she was working full time all while raising four boys. She received a scholarship from the Hamot Health Foundation that helped her pursue this degree, and with the support from her family, friends, and coworkers, she was able to get through it. She said that it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it.

She completed her dissertation on incubator humidity and completed a systematic review of evidence in order to come up with what is best for the baby. She recently found out that part of her dissertation is going to be published in the journal, Advances in Neonatal Care. She hopes that through sharing her knowledge she will not only help lead the way in evidence practice at Hamot but also have an even larger impact on society.

Laurie loves her job and is incredibly passionate about what she does. Her advice to others is to find what you’re passionate about because it’s easier to learn and work when you are doing something you love.