Over the course of her life and career, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to community-based initiatives and to supporting the health of diverse and underserved populations, with a passion for maternal and child health. Early in her career, Jodie worked for 2 years in rural Alabama, helping build a non-profit, Project Horseshoe Farm, while she completed her nursing school prerequisites. A large part of her role there as a founding fellow was developing relationships with community members, assessing their needs, and developing programs for youth as well as women with mental health concerns. In nursing school, she worked with a rural farmworkers program, provided education to postpartum women who were incarcerated, volunteered in a street medicine program, joined the leadership team of Embrace, a Refugee birth support program, and started a volunteer doula training program for Embrace at the nursing school.

Jodie moved to Knoxville and began her career as a Certified Nurse Midwife serving primarily economically marginalized patients at a non-profit birth center. She participated in multidisciplinary care services and helped lead group classes and centering prenatal and pediatric care. She loved participating in this type of care for her patients and loved how this type of holistic care worked seamlessly together to create a safe care network for women and their families. 

In 2018, she joined the University of Tennessee Medical Center to start the organization’s first midwifery practice in it's history, which has grown tremendously in the last 6 years. She helped to establish a unique relationship with the Free Medical Clinic of America/Kim Health Center where she is able to care for both private practice and free clinic patients each week.

She serves as the Midwifery Director, providing full-scope midwifery care in the outpatient and inpatient settings. Jodie has a genuine interest in providing the best clinical care for her patients. She has gone out of her way to revise her clinic's intake forms and create postpartum birthing plan forms to be inclusive and gather information from her patients that addresses their social, mental, and emotional needs.

She is also heavily engaged in scholarly activity and quality improvement initiatives in the Center for Women and Infants. One, in particular, was designed to collect perspectives from pregnant patients that have been historically marginalized. Specifically, the goal was to better understand patient perspectives of obstetric racism in order to provide better obstetric care for this patient population. Jodie uses her skills as a clinician and community leader to promote wellness and create positive change. She loves engaging with her community and has found that there is a strong desire for greater connection, education, mental health support and access to health care and nutrition. In 2022 she founded a new initiative called “The Sister Circle” in response to the growing maternal health crisis and out of a desire to connect with women of color in our community to provide support. She feels very passionate about addressing the needs of this community, amplifying their voices.

Jodie is an amazing provider who not only delivers excellent care to her patients but has also greatly improved advancements in equity for women's health at our institution. Jodie meets her patients where they are, listens intently to their birthing desires, engages them as members of their own care team, and gains their trust as a provider. In a time of increasing maternal mortality, with black and brown women being three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women, there is an all-time high of wariness in hospitals and healthcare systems. Jodie breaks those barriers through her compassion and vulnerability as a provider. But to a greater extent, Jodie is truly the exemplar of advancing equitable care by being an integral member on multiple committees and quality initiative movements in the Women and Infants department. Her dedication to decreasing the black-white gap in maternal care is evident through her hard work and collaboration on these committees to facilitate excellence in equitable maternal care. Jodie is a great asset to our facility and a champion in women's health. We, and our patients, are truly grateful to have her as a provider!

Having worked with Jodie on the APP Governance Council and the Lead Advanced Practice Provider Advisory Council (LAAC), I can confidently say that Jodie's interest in providing equitable clinical care is also reflected in her leadership. Jodie has led the Governance Council in a way that embodies equity, which is important when leading a council that represents a diverse group of clinicians, including Nurse Midwives, Nurse Practitioners, CRNAs, Physician Assistants, Clinical Nurse Specialists, and Genetic Counselors. From my conversations with Jodie, I know her personal interest in health equity from the clinical perspective, and this influence is evident in her leadership style. Jodie has also expressed interest in exploring new opportunities to work in health equity above and beyond her current role. This intrinsic drive will enable Jodie to be successful as a leader and clinician. I cannot think of a more deserving individual for this particular award, and I am happy and proud to count Jodie as a colleague and friend.