Featured Graduate Brooke Shepard

Brooke currently works as a health coach on a University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing study (funded by the National Institutes of Health), to test a virtual health coaching intervention. The study is designed to support heart failure caregivers and was recently expanded to include frontotemporal dementia caregivers to help improve their self-care.

Brooke has also recently taken on the role of Medical Director and practicing provider for LIVE Hydration Spa, and utilizes her coaching skills with a unique system of healthcare delivery called direct primary care. Additionally, she has published a book to help with burnout in healthcare. She continues that work as an entrepreneur, combining her health coaching skill set and love for empowering healthcare providers to make a conscious difference in the field of health and wellness. Her goal is to help others find and create work that aligns with their natural abilities and vision of a paradigm shift in the conventional healthcare setting.

Read more about Brooke below:

Brooke Shepard, DNP, BSN, RN, APRN-NP, FNP-C, HNB-BC, HWNC-BC

I completed my diploma in nursing in 2006 and bachelor of nursing in 2014. After that, I worked in emergent and outpatient mental health settings for over 13 years. My love of holistic health grew over the years and I became interested in coaching while in graduate school. My primary focus of study at that time was about finding solutions for burnout and compassion fatigue. I became certified as a holistic nurse in 2016, as well as a health and wellness nurse coach in 2017 after graduating from the Wisdom of the Whole Coaching Academy coach training program. In 2019, I completed my Doctor of Nursing Practice with a specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner so that I could practice more openly with regard to the whole person, integrating mind, body, and spirit.

I’m also a member of the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA), and have published an article on holistic mental health for nurses in the AHNA Beginnings magazine. I’ve presented professionally on the topic of self-care for mental health professionals and also on the topic of holistic health and wellness at The University of Nebraska’s Law College. My love of learning has additionally led me to learn and incorporate skills in mindfulness-based stress reduction and motivational interviewing. I absolutely love learning and consider myself a lifelong student!

I now integrate coaching throughout all of my endeavors. I have found it so incredibly valuable to look through multiple lenses when supporting others to achieve their goals. To me, coaching is extremely therapeutic and builds a strong foundation of trust, empowers a client’s autonomy, and allows clients to simply be themselves at their finest! To me, this allowing is where the expression of our highest self unfolds!

You can find me on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookesheparddnp