Welcome Noles
Nursing Alumni!

Welcome to your Florida State University College of Nursing Alumni Website.  We are proud of the contributions you are making, and have made to the health and well being of the people of Florida, across the country, and around the world.  The purpose of this site is to showcase and celebrate those accomplishments and successes.  We invite you to participate by sharing some of yours with us by clicking on the link “Contact Us” on the left.

To the left you see links to other activities and organizations to which we hope you also will contribute and enjoy.   Don’t miss the opportunity to stay up to date on the current activities at the CON by clicking on the Monday Morning Report icon on the College of Nursing home page.

Spotlight on Alums

Felix Bradbury is a cum laude graduate of Florida State University College of Nursing (BSN 1992) where he was president of his class. He holds two advanced degrees in health systems management from Tulane University Medical Center. With a career in healthcare spanning over 16 years, he has worked in a number of healthcare setting: med/surg oncology nursing, public health epidemiology and disease surveillance, a state center for biostatistics and several large commercial insurance carriers. He is currently Vice President of Risk Management, Reporting and Analytics for SHPS Inc., a large healthcare integrator based in Scottsdale, Arizona that provides healthcare cost-containment solutions to over 15 Fortune 100 clients. 

At SHPS Inc, Felix is responsible for managing all aspects of clinical and client-facing analytics including internal and external client reporting, metric and report development, performance monitoring and analytical systems for the company s Health Management Services product lines. His interests are in biostatistics, predictive modeling and applied decision science. He said, (I) enjoy developing cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness models to improve quality of care, improve health outcomes and lower costs. 

Felix is a Board Certified Health Care Executive and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. He was chosen for the College s prestigious Early Careerist of the Year Award in 2004 for his commitment to improving relations between third-party payers and acute care hospitals in Louisiana.

Currently Felix resides in Scottsdale Arizona, and also maintains a home in Houston. He is married and his wife is expecting their first child in November. He likes to attend car shows or drive his 2003 Corvette in sanctioned racing events.

The path from recently-
graduated clinical nurse to nursing administrator has been one of increasing experience, education and responsibility for Chris Martorella, Associate Chief Nursing Officer at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. A BSN graduate (1985) of the FSU School of Nursing, he was raised in Miami, and chose to attend FSU because most of his acquaintances went to University of Florida. He said, I loved it, loved Tallahassee the people and the change of seasons. 

He actually started out to be a doctor, but decided medicine was not what he wanted. He said, I backed into nursing. And I am happy I did.  He made close friends in the nursing program, and still keeps in touch with two classmates.

After FSU, in 1985, there was not a nursing shortage. Chris moved to Gainesville where is family had relocated, took a job at Alachua General Hospital and went to graduate school at UF earning a master s degree in critical care nursing with a functional role in administration. He met his wife in Gainesville, and over the 13 years at Alachua General progressed to Assistant to the Director of Nursing.

By this time he had become increasingly interested in administration and wanted to learn hospital management in order to help the largest number of people.  Transferring to the larger Shands Hospital in Gainesville, he became a Director of Nursing. While there for five years, he was exposed to transplantation, burn care, and pediatric ICU.

Then he took a job in Daytona Beach as the Chief Nursing Officer at Halifax General Hospital. There was opportunity at Halifax, and I liked what happened,  he remarked. After two years there, Chris was a nursing consultant for six months, then moved back to Tallahassee with his family to become Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at TMH where he has been for a year. He describes his job as: The business manager for the nursing department, making financial analyses and financial benchmarking. 

When not spending time with his family (including three children) or working, Chris is active in Florida Organization of Nursing Executives, helping to establish FONE in the Panhandle. The organization website states that it fosters leadership to shape the future of health care delivery, education and health policy in Florida.  He also appreciates the interest in diversity and men in nursing that the organization stresses.

FSU School of Nursing, said Chris Martorella, gave me an outstanding foundation. I couldn t have achieved this position without the BSN from FSU. It set me apart from other candidates. I was well-prepared for graduate studies, primed for leadership.  And the (now) College of Nursing is proud to have him as an outstanding alumnus!

An outstanding educator, Elinor F. Reed, BSN (1957), began her career at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Nursing in 1964. Prior to that, she was both a staff nurse and a public health nurse. She also taught in hospital diploma programs before moving to UTHSC. Since retiring in 1988, Dr. Reed was named an Associate Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee and the Elinor F. Reed Distinguished Visiting Professorship was established in her honor.

Building upon her nursing education received from the School of Nursing at Florida State University, she pursued higher education, receiving the MSN from the University of Alabama, Birmingham in 1969 and the Ed.S. in Supervision and Curriculum Development from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa in 1974.

While on the faculty at UTHSC, Dr. Reed helped establish the Beta Theta chapter of the nursing honor society, Sigma Theta Tau, and is a charter member. The Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching was given to her for the academic year 1973-73.

She was influential in interactions with students, teaching them to reach beyond academic and clinical expertise. A student noted, being with Elinor Reed at the bedside of a dying patient taught me gentleness of voice, tenderness of touch, and the ability to convey love and meaningfulness at the time it was most needed. 

The counterpart to her academic career was that of military health professional. Capt. Reed served as Chief Nurse of the 155th Aeromedical Evacuation Flight with the Tennessee Air National Guard. She served the maximum 89-day tour of active duty, assisting in the evacuation of American soldiers who had been wounded in Vietnam. In 1989, she retired from the United States Air Force with the rank of Colonel. She is a present a Nursing Consultant to the Surgeon General of the United States.

A modest woman of extraordinary influence, Elinor Reed is remembered by students and faculty at UTHSC, and her colleagues from the School of Nursing class of 1957 who recently held their reunion, as a very special person who in combining nursing education and military service, making a great contribution to humanity.

I knew when I graduated that public health would be the right fit for me,  said Carol Rittenhouse, Interim Chief Operating Officer of the Tallahassee Red Cross Chapter. It was the jumping off point for everything I did after that! I liked the "one-on-one" with patients and families in their home setting. My patients were diverse....from elderly to preemies; from patients with acute to chronic health and mental health conditions; from those living in poverty to those living in higher-end neighborhoods &.. the learning opportunities were never-ending. 

Carol graduated from the School of Nursing in 1964 where she was the vice-president of the Student Nurses Association. She stayed home with her first child for three years during which time she was involved in volunteer work with organizations like the YWCA, the Red Cross and the Georgia Nurses Association (GNA). Then the opportunity presented itself to become the Director of Nursing and Health Programs at the Red Cross. She originally thought this position would entail a five-year commitment, but it turned into a thirty year career! She commented: During the last twenty years I was in senior management, in positions that didn't require a nursing degree, but I never stop thinking of myself as a nurse. And that degree from FSU was the best foundation for every position I have held! 

Her continued involvement with nursing professional organizations after graduation evolved into leadership positions with GNA, including President. For several years Carol was on the Board of the American Nurses Association and the Board of Trustees of the American Nurses Foundation. She was the founding President of the Georgia Nurses Foundation (GNF), the charitable arm of the Georgia Nurses Association with a mission to seek and distribute funds to foster and support nursing and its contributions to health care

Over the years she has taught management and leadership courses, has managed large operations, task forces, and projects. For Carol, one of the most exciting long -term projects was managing the Red Cross role for the 1996 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She assumed management roles for several major disaster operations in the aftermaths of September 11, 2001, Hurricane Ivan, and Hurricane Katrina.

Carol Rittenhouse "retired" from the Red Cross four years ago. That doesn t mean she isn t working. Since then she has been the Interim Chief Executive Officer in five different Red Cross Chapters spending 3-5 months in each, including currently, in Tallahassee. She states that,  retirement hasn't been complete yet! Being involved, making a difference, providing leadership were a few of the many qualities expected of us as student nurses at FSU. They seem to continue to be driving forces in my life!