Kristina is a native Oregonian with a passion for outdoor activities ranging from soccer, skiing, mountain climbing in her youth to camping, hiking, and gardening today. Kristina's love for the outdoors led her to pursue a degree in Biology from Portland State University. Kristina was hired by OHSU's Dr. Kabat in the Department of Biochemistry researching viruses, leukemia, and HIV. The work was fascinating and contributed to the development of medicine to cure many diseases. Kristina is an upbeat, outgoing, people person who soon realized she would rather care for humans with the disease than find cures in a lab.
Kristina went to nursing school at Bethel College and found her true passion, caring for people. For the first ten years of her career, she worked on the Maternal Child Unit and helped women and their families bring babies into the world. It was an honor and privilege to be at the birth and hear the baby's first cry. Kristina realized that women have many choices in how to give birth and feed their babies. As a nurse it is very gratifying to educate patients on the options available to them and support them in the choices they made. It is rewarding to be an advocate for patients as they navigate their hospital stay to help them feel in control and empowered and to help them take charge of their health and wellness. Kristina encourages her patients and families to speak up and ask questions of their health care providers.
After ten years at the bedside, Kristina was promoted to Nurse Manager of Family Birth with 24/7 responsibility for the daily operations of budget, human resources management, patient satisfaction, and quality. She managed a team of 95 Caregivers: RNs, scrub techs, unit clerks, CNAs and environmental services. Kristina earned her MBA from George Fox University in 2019.
After 20 years in OB Kristina desired to expand her horizons beyond mother baby nursing and held roles in The Quality / Risk Management Departments. As Manager of Quality, she was The Joint Commission representative for the hospital overseeing regulatory and survey preparations ensuring successful inspections for the health systems. As a former scientist, Kristina loves data and sharing information to teams in a way that is meaningful and helps drive improvements. Kristina is an extroverted data enthusiast who makes facts and figures fun.
Kristina had her own children while working as an RN on the Maternal Child Unit; Seth now 28, (married to Rileigh), Emily 24 and Evan 22. Kristina wears many hats as Mom, Wife, RN, Daughter, Niece, Sister, Auntie and loves them all. She is very family focused and loves spending time with her adult children and extended family whenever possible. Kristina loves to cook for a crowd and feed the family. She volunteers at Drift Creek Camp as camp nurse every year combining her love of outdoors and nursing.