Hesper B. Nowatzki, DNP, PMHNP-BC, FNP-BC

My healthcare career began in 2009, providing in-home care for chronically and terminally ill infants and children and working in long-term care with older adults nearing the end of life. I advanced within skilled nursing from staff and wound-care nursing to MDS and infection-control coordination, Director of Nursing, and Licensed Nursing Home Administrator. In executive leadership within a rural critical access healthcare system, I led long-term care QAPI and hospital CQI initiatives, regulatory compliance, survey readiness, corrective action planning, and multidisciplinary departmental managers. I also served on policy, safety, information technology, finance, and compliance committees and helped develop emergency preparedness programs and community health needs assessments. These roles taught me how healthcare systems function from the bedside to the boardroom.

I became a family nurse practitioner in 2015, earned my doctorate in 2017, and later completed post-doctoral certification in psychiatric-mental health. My advanced-practice career has spanned family medicine, home-based care, palliative care, chronic disease management, long-term care, and the treatment of medically complex older adults. I later expanded into remote psychiatry, geriatric behavioral health program development, medical direction, telehealth, and high-volume community mental health.

This range of experience gives me a strong understanding of medical complexity, aging, healthcare systems, and the realities of treatment across settings. I also bring a neurodivergent perspective to my work and understand how easily people can be overlooked or misunderstood when their communication styles, experiences, or ways of moving through the world do not fit expected patterns.