Ellen Wray received her undergraduate degree in nursing from Ball State University where she was also a student athlete, playing four years of division one field hockey. After graduation, she took a job in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio, where she quickly discovered that she loved caring for critically ill patients, and began working in a Cardiothoracic ICU. She eventually moved to Chicago, Illinois to further her skills by working in a combined surgical and Cardiothoracic ICU, obtaining her CCRN, and becoming an ECMO specialist. Using the skills that she gained she moved with her husband to New York City where she joined one of the top Cardiothoracic ICUs in the world—New York Presbyterian. At NYP she was exposed to some of the most cutting-edge treatments, worked with leading healthcare professionals, and encountered extremely complex cases. She spent three years in the ICU working, building incredible friendships, making memories, and gaining invaluable experiences. Those three years taught her firsthand how nurses and nurse practitioners are critical to the current and future excellence of our healthcare system. It is at NYP that she solidified her goal of becoming an Acute Nurse Practitioner. From New York, she moved with her husband to Chicago, where she joined one of the top ten hospitals in the country—Rush Medical Center. At that time, she also enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame Indiana to make her dreams a reality. Balancing school, a new job, a new city, and then a new family—they had their first daughter in March of 2022—proved to be incredibly difficult, but well worth it in the end. Upon her graduation, she intends to take her newly acquired Nurse Practitioner skill set back into the acute care setting at one of the top cardiothoracic units in Chicago to continue the passion that she developed over a decade ago.