2024 NP EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR
CHRIS DIVIN
Dr. Divin has been a nurse since 1976. She received her BSN from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Her passion for teaching was kindled during the 17 years she worked with health promoters in marginalized communities in Latin America and the US/Mexico border. In 1997 she completed her MSN in Community Health and the Family Nurse Practitioner Program from the University of Texas at El Paso and began working in primary care in the colonias in El Paso and later with frail aging adults at a PACE (Program for all-inclusive care for the elderly) site. While at PACE, she developed a palliative care program and obtained her Advanced Hospice and Palliative Nursing certification. In 2015, she completed her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing where her research interests focused on intimate partner violence and salutogenesis or factors that promote health in adversity. She has published and presented these findings not only in the US but internationally as well.
For the past 7 years Dr. Divin has been privileged to serve as the director of the FNP program at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to teaching, she routinely precepts students each semester, sharing her passion for universal healthcare at a central Texas clinic for the underserved. She delights in creating a participatory learning environment with her students, always exploring ways to make learning not only evidence-based but fun as well. Dr. Divin is a passionate educator that draws upon decades of NP practice to provide a level of excellence in education that is of the highest quality. Since 2016, she has served as director of the FNP program, and in that time, she has taught every course in the FNP program, receiving consistently top scores on course and instructor evaluations from students.
Recently, she is focusing more time on discovering innovative models to drive wellness interventions for NPs and NP students. She regularly reminds students of the importance of caring for themselves so that they can care well for others. Dr. Divin serves as a role model for creating and sustaining a culture in nursing education that integrates theory and practice.
Dr. Divin leads by example. Her students and faculty colleagues are routinely inspired by not only her ability to innovate and educate from the depth of her of clinical expertise, but also by the compassion and empathy with which she provides care for underserved populations. Many NPs in clinical practice hesitate to return to academia for a variety of reasons yet Dr. Divin specifically obtained a PhD after decades in practice so that she could give back to the NP profession by teaching the next generation of NPs.
Ultimately, Dr. Divin believes her patients and her students are her greatest teachers.
