Young Kee Markham graduated in the Family Practice specialty, with a gerontology specialty, from our Master 's program in 1989.  She currently lectures in the adult gerontology primary care specialty in the Advanced Practice Nurse graduate program.  For 15 years, she taught gerontology content to Gerontology Nurse Practitioners and for the past five years teaches teenager, adult and gerontology content.  Young Kee says she specializes in gerontology because her heart is with the elderly.  When she 's not mentoring students, she can be found visiting homebound elderly and caregivers and volunteers at the VA hospital care as a gerontology nurse practitioner consultant.  She also lectures on caring for the elderly at hospitals from Monterey to Maui and provides information about nurse practitioners and elderly issues to international nursing guests from China, South Korea and Taiwan.  She believes that the greatest attribute a nurse can have is the ability to mold themselves into delivering the right care needed at that moment for each specific patient.  As an immigrant originally from Seoul, South Korea, Young Kee said since she was a young child, she has benefitted from the California education system and now lectures because she believes she should give back to a School that has given her so much.
Here 's what some of her students had to say about Young Kee: 
"She is very passionate in teaching and it is contagious to all her students, including me. Her eyes always light up as she teaches us how to make a difference as a nurse practitioner in whatever setting we are placed. She is very knowledgeable and skillful; she teaches us some clinical pearls in each clinical conference and they are highly beneficial and practical in clinical settings. 
"I have seen many different kinds of professors in my academic life but Mrs. Markham was exceptional. She embodies a compassionate caregiver and critical thinker whenever she shares her nursing experiences with me and with my group during conferences. She incorporates the complexity of nursing theories into a simple nursing intervention, which I easily adapt into my practice both as an APN student and registered nurse. She also always makes sure that each of her students is allowed to share feelings and insights about nursing care and what can be done to make nursing better."
"She makes me appreciate and try to emulate her approach to patient care. She always tells us how the education, training, brainpower, and skills that UCLA APN bestows on us are a privilege and a responsibility to the community."