Simone Chinnis, DNP, MBA, NP-C, AE-C

 

Simone Chinnis, DNP, MBA, NP-C, AE-C, possesses over 17 years of combined healthcare experience as a health administrator, educator, provider, and nurse. Notably she serves as the inaugural Director of Community Engagement at the College of Nursing and the nation’s first remote, telepsychiatric fellowship for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, the Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse TechNology-Enhanced Residency (PARTNER) Program. Additionally, Chinnis serves as a bilingual Family Nurse Practitioner and Certified Asthma Educator at Pelican Pediatrics, a clinic grounded in the provision of culturally applicable care. Chinnis is a lifelong learner earning a Bachelor of Science in Spanish and Health Exercise Science from Furman University in 2003 and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 2005. She continued to foster her love of learning by obtaining a Master of Business Administration (2009) and dually completing the requirements for a Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice from MUSC’s College of Nursing (CON) in 2017. As an educator, Chinnis bridges academia and the community through her membership on various boards of directors and engagement with high schools to promote an interest in health care. In academia, Chinnis is leading the integration of education about implicit biases in the DNP program at CON with the goal of reducing healthcare biases in the next generation of advanced practice providers. Chinnis believes a reduction in health disparities will only occur as a result of addressing implicit biases, advancements in healthcare through the translation of research into practice, adherence to evidence-based practices, understanding of social determinants of health, provision of culturally applicable healthcare, and system-level advancement of health equity. This belief guides Chinnis’ practice as an administrator, provider, and educator, permeating every aspect of her professional career.