Jeffrey Vu
Degree: BS ’09, MS ’14
Jeffrey Vu is currently Director of Clinical Services, Orange County Health Care Agency – Public Health Services – in addition to other hefty roles within California’s healthcare and nursing infrastructure. One of the first ever cohort to graduate from the UCI Program in Nursing Science (as it was then) – first with a Bachelor and then a Master of Nursing Science – Jeffrey went on to achieve his DNP and, additionally, MBA at Johns Hopkins University.
None of this is what he envisioned when, as a third-year biology student at UCI, he was considering a career in dentistry. “Talk about faith!” he recalls, of his decision to switch to the brand new nursing program at the time. “I was only just starting to hear about how amazing the profession of nursing is: the stars aligned!”
He continues: “I decided that the qualities of being a caring, empathetic nurse at the service of others was more in alignment with my personality than any other career, and it has led to a fulfilling career of living my personal mission and values. My big message about this program would be that it’s a world of opportunity. I see the profession of nursing as…DOORS OPENING.”
Jeffrey is very clear about the direction in which he believes those doors can and must lead: to increasing diversity among nurse leaders, and greater health equity for all.
I didn’t know I wanted to be a nurse.
Jeffrey Vu
“I had to make a conscious decision to leave the clinical path and get to be one of the people making decisions. But whether I’m working as a nurse practitioner or a manager, I’m always a nurse,” he says. “Compassion and thoughtfulness are things you live and exude. Now I’m really getting to be part of the conversation. Leadership means finding a role that gets you in the direction you should be going. The end goal is always for the community.”
In Jeffrey’s current role for the Orange County Health Care Agency, his remit includes executive leadership of a public health program called “Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US (EHE),” backed by an $11.5 million grant from the CDC that’s distributed between several local health jurisdictions in Southern California.
Jeffrey’s passion for people characterizes his leadership of the EHE effort. “It’s not all about efficiency – it’s about people’s overall health. It’s unfortunate that in public health we’re responding all the time. Invest in people when they are healthy and they will stay healthy! And we’ve got to engage with every community; we’re not in a silo. This is what I say to everyone: ‘Just because it’s not your problem…that doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem!’”
No matter how crowded his life becomes, however, the role Jeffrey never relinquishes is one half-day per week as a hands-on nurse practitioner for the UC Irvine Health Gender Diversity Program (where he is also Associate Program Director). “Service of people made me a nurse. I will say, ‘I sacrificed my life to service,’” he laughs. “I chose to make that sacrifice! I’m happy. Other people negotiate salary when they accept a new role. I negotiate Wednesday afternoons.”
John Aldrich Alejandro
Degree: BS ’12, MS ’16
John Aldrich Alejandro always wanted to be a nurse – the first in his family, who moved to the United States from the Philippines when John was nine years old. “I always loved taking care of my family,” he laughs. “When I was maybe 10 or 11, if my uncle tried to smoke around us, I would chase him with a ‘no smoking’ sign and try and get him to stop!”
Now an urgent care nurse practitioner with Hoag Medical Group, he is an energetic campaigner and advocate within the profession. He serves as the past president of the California Association of Nurse Practitioners Orange County Chapter and was elected to the role of CFO for the state organization.
John credits his university experience with giving him the tools he needed for such leadership roles: “I had really stellar professors and mentors who helped me navigate the politics of nursing,” he recalls. “Not just nursing – in organizational finance, too!”
Most recently, John has been campaigning to improve healthcare provision in underserved, often rural, areas by lobbying against “antiquated practice barriers” that prevent nurse practitioners in California from practicing to the fullest extent of their education and training. His involvement in public service events both nationally and internationally has included medical missions to Mexico and the Philippines, and the vaccination of 10,000 Orange County residents against Covid.
Natalie Nguyen
Degree: BS ’13
“The students are so excited for nursing!” says Natalie Nguyen, musing her motivation for returning to the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing as a clinical instructor. “Their positivity is contagious. They’ve got me re-excited about being a nurse!”
Since Natalie graduated from UCI in 2013, she’s worked in Virginia and, since 2015, in California as a perioperative nurse, a nurse care manager, an educator and a consultant – sometimes all at the same time. She meanwhile gained her MSN from A&M University in West Texas, focusing on education.
At first, she was surprised at how inspiring she found working as a clinical educator because, she says, despite the fact that she “always loved science…I was that person who when I finished my bachelor’s I said, ‘I’m never reading another textbook in my life!’”
Now, Natalie is particularly glad to teach at the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing because of “the caliber and type of student at UCI. They are so motivated and so purely active in their wanting to learn.” In fact, she’s been inspired to consider returning to education herself, to pursue a PhD.
“I’m looking for bigger impact,” she says. “I see the issues facing the profession and there are so many problems based on how it’s approached in the clinical area. I’m very interested in exploring some of those issues.”
Cassidie Thomas
Degree: BS ’13
Cassidie Thomas is current president of the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing alumni chapter. The role dovetails neatly with a prominent aspect of her professional life: creating resources by connecting people. Having grown up in an isolated rural community, she explains, when she first arrived at university she was “blown away by the potential of network building. I never took that for granted.”
Cassidie is a school nurse at a private school in Los Angeles – a role that is in some ways uniquely isolated: “Private school nurses don’t typically work alongside other healthcare professionals,” she points out. Although she generally likes working outside a traditional clinical setting, when the Covid pandemic necessitated school closures she identified a downside: “I realized that the public school system could funnel information to their school nurses, but nurses in independent schools were more isolated. We didn’t have that same touchstone.”
Cassidie responded by identifying a group for nurses working in private and independent schools, and expanding it into a forum via which such nurses can – and do – regularly meet to share ideas and information. Now, in her alumni role, she’s also been instrumental in launching a mentorship program that provides “the opportunity to connect nurses to one another, and student nurses with working nurses. It’s going to be amazing.”
