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Members of the nursing faculty at Utah Career College (UCC) are experienced professionals dedicated to student success. Since class sizes in the Associate of Applied Science in Nursing program are limited, students have ready access to instructors, receive the help they need to master challenging material and benefit from close mentoring relationships. Below are instructor profiles. If you have any questions, please contact UCC and a representative will be happy to help you.
Nursing instructor and staff profiles
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Joyce Brown, RN, MSN
Joyce E. Brown has more than 15 years in clinical practice, including, since 2004, various roles in nursing education. She has a passion for teaching and loves working with students. Joyce has taught theory and practicum in family health, community health, and nursing management and transitions in a private college and in a community college for a bachelor and an associate degree nursing program in western Michigan.
Joyce has worked in a variety of clinical nursing settings, including pediatrics, medical surgical, oncology, outpatient, community and school health settings.
She is a member of the following international and national organizations: Sigma Theta Tau Inc, Lifetime Member of Delta Sigma Theta and International Organization of Infant Massage.
Joyce has presented to multiple groups including health providers and community organizations regarding health prevention, benefits of complimentary therapies and chronic diseases. She conceptualized and collaborated with non-traditional healthcare organizations to establish community health screenings and education for a health fair that continues on a yearly basis.
She has been a participant in video recording in continuing education units (CEU) approved courses for nurses and she provided recorded testimony to State Representatives at a community hearing of experiences encountered from medical professionals regarding barriers affecting women’s health in Kent County.
Carolyn "CJ" Ewell
Carolyn "CJ" Ewell is a master’s prepared family nurse practitioner now on faculty at Utah Career College. Carolyn completed her AD program at Salt Lake Community College in 1991, earning High Honors, and took a position in medical-surgical/oncology at St. Mark’s Hospital. She continued her education, completing her BSN at Weber State University in 1994 Magna Cum Laude. While at Weber State University, she was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Theta Tau. Also in 1994, she transferred to the critical care unit at St. Mark’s. While in that position, she earned national certification as a critical-care registered nurse (CCRN). Carolyn completed her master’s degree in the family nurse practitioner program at the University of Utah in 1996 and maintains national certification as a family nurse practitioner.
In 1997 Carolyn began practice in an internal medicine practice which included an endocrinologist, and established an urgent care track for that group. Carolyn’s love of critical care kept her active in bedside patient care, working for a staffing agency on the Wasatch Front.
In 2005 Carolyn joined the medical services staff at the Utah State Hospital, where she currently provides primary care services. This experience has provided her with a unique insight into the needs of mentally ill individuals.
In 2002 Carolyn began her career in nursing education at the Medical Careers Development Center. In 2006, she joined the faculty at Provo College, where she developed the pharmacology courses for first and second year AD students. Carolyn joined the faculty of Utah Career College in July 2008 and is excited to be able to share her knowledge with UCC students. Carolyn is certified with the American Heart Association as an instructor for both basic life support and advanced cardiac life support courses.
Carolyn is active as a volunteer with the Provo City Community Emergency Response Team, the United Way Volunteer Clinic in Provo, and serves as the Chairperson of the Government Relations Committee for the Utah Nurses Association.
Carolyn presents NCLEX-RN review sessions for students and graduates of Utah Career College.
Alisa Garrett
Alisa Garrett graduated in 2004 from the University of Utah with a Master's in Nursing, Adult Nurse Practitioner emphasis. She is licensed as an APRN but continues to practice as an ICU RN as she has since her graduation with her Bachelor's in Nursing from the University of Utah in 1991. She has split her time in the ICU with psychiatric nursing. She obtained a Bachelors in Psychology in 1981 from Kent State University and completed 45 graduate hours toward a Master's in Clinical Psychology at The University of Idaho. She is currently enrolled at Walden University as a PhD student in Health Psychology. Her main interest is in the mind-body connection and the effect of attitudes and behaviors on one's physical health. She has been a research assistant and a graduate assistant and has worked for The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence at the University of Utah, where her teaching experience began. She hopes to teach full time once she obtains her PhD and to work with the veteran population with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to promote wellness, resilience, and stress reduction for this honorable population.
Randy Hanson
Randy Hanson currently teaches in the Nursing Program. He received his BSN from Brigham Young University and also holds Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Nursing. Additionally he completed a Master’s Certificate in Clinical Informatics.
He enjoys teaching all nursing subjects and doing clinical rotations at the hospitals in the valley with the students. He is married, has a daughter and two dogs and dreams of someday owning a Harley Davidson.
He loves being involved in teaching and sharing his passion for education and learning.
He believes the greatest legacy we pass on is our knowledge that we gained. He strives hard to accomplish this.
Janica Johnson, FNP-BC
Janica graduated from the University of Utah College of Nursing in 1979 with a BSN in Nursing. She worked with sick infants at Primary Children's Medical Center until 1982. She transferred to Logan Regional Hospital where she worked in NBICU and well baby nursery, Mother/baby and Labor and Delivery. In 1985 she moved with her family to Southern Utah where she worked as Home Health Director, then Nursing Administrator at Gunnison Valley Hospital for 12 years. During that time, the hospital was renovated, she served on the State Board of Nursing two consecutive terms, served on numerous UHA board committees, was an active member in the Rural Nurse Administrators of Utah group, and served one term as President of Nurse Administrators of Utah.
She graduated with a Masters in Nursing in family practice in 1998 from the University of Utah Outreach Program. In 1998 she took a position with Central Valley Medical Center and moved her family to Nephi to assist with building a new hospital. There she served as Nurse Administrator, working with four rural hospitals in the corporation establishing Corporate Compliance/QA programs implementing national patient safety standards. In 2003 it was necessary for Janica to move to Salt Lake City for personal reasons, where she worked in Home Care for two years and managed an onsite construction injury clinic for a large chemical plant building for three years. She joined the UCC staff in July of 2008.
Janica has always enjoyed working with new graduate nurses and student nurses in the hospital setting, always knew her career would be directed toward education, and has enjoyed sharing her knowledge in that way.
Carolyn C. Lewis, PhD, RN, CNE (Program Chair)
Dr. Carolyn C. Lewis has been in nursing education since 1994, and became certified as a nursing educator in 2005 through the National League for Nursing. She loves working with students and mentoring faculty. Dr. Lewis has taught nursing in practical, associate degree, bachelor and doctoral nursing programs and has been a nursing program administrator since 1999. Institutions where she has worked as a nursing educator include: Weber State University, Ogden-Weber Applied Technology Center, Dixie State College of Utah, Texas Woman’s University, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Health Education Systems Incorporated, Provo College, and Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions. Dr. Lewis earned a PhD from Texas Woman’s University (2005); a Master’s in Nursing Education from University of Phoenix (1997) and a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Brigham Young University (1992).
Dr. Lewis’ has worked in a variety of clinical nursing settings, including: postpartum, gynecology, nursery, medical-oncology, telemetry, out-patient clinic, home care, and nursing education. Her expertise is program administration, curriculum development, psychometrics / testing, program evaluation and research design. She has taught theory, lab and clinical for fundamentals, medical-surgical, mental health, pediatrics, pharmacology, maternal-newborn, informatics, therapeutic communication, LPN transitions, preceptored synthesis, leadership, health care economics, community nursing and NCLEX review.
Dr. Lewis is a member of several professional organizations, including: Southern Nurses Research Society (Treasurer 2007-2009), American Nurses Association, Utah Nurses Association, National League for Nurses, Sigma Theta Tau, and Utah Organization of Nurse Leaders. She is also a volunteer for the American Red Cross.
Dr. Lewis has presented and published on a number of topics including: Getting Started With Nursing Research—Writing a Clear Hypothesis; Preparing a Nursing Workforce for the Future; Aiming “At-Risk”: High School Seniors From Disadvantaged Communities Toward a Career in Nursing; Predictive Accuracy of the HESI Exit Exam on NCLEX –RN Pass Rates and Effects of Progression Policies on Nursing student Exit Exam Scores; Rapid Response Teams; Taking Control of Your Health; Increasing RN Sensitivity to Age & Cultural Differences of Patients & Staff; 50th Anniversary Celebration of Texas Woman’s University—Houston Historical Depiction; Using Computerized Testing to Assess Educational Outcomes—Trends in Benchmarking with HESI Exams; Strategies Used to Achieve 100% NCLEX Pass Rate for both the PN and ADN Programs at Dixie College; Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Using an Evidence-Based Practice Approach.
Shirley B. Oberg, RN, MSN (Adjunct faculty member)
Lee Reeves, RN, MBA (Staff, Project Coordinator)
Lee Reaves has worked in healthcare and healthcare administration in many capacities. Her expertise includes organization dynamics and organizational behavior. These have served her well in positions such as Director of Nursing in psychiatric hospitals and Administrator in correctional medical environments. Her strengths include coordination of systems, organization of data and communication of complex ideas.
Lee began as an educator by teaching health in the public school system in Liberia, west Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. She has since been the clinical instructor for the Bridgeport Hospital School of Nursing in Connecticut and she created and implemented a program to teach medical terminology at the Utah College of Massage Therapy.
Throughout her rich administrative career, she has had numerous opportunities to develop educational components for adult education and professional development and to present them to staff, management and peer groups. These have included topics such as Continuous Quality Improvement, Sexual Harassment, Mandt System of Client Management techniques and Infection Control.
Charlene Russell, R.N., MS
Charlene R. Starr BSN, ADN (Instructor)
Charlene R. Starr has been involved in nursing education since 1986 and is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Nursing Education. She loves to work with students and guide them to greater knowledge in caring for the clients they will serve. Ms. Starr’s desire to teach started when she was a Certified Nursing Assistant, teaching Basic Life Support to health care providers in the local hospital and long term care facilities in 1986. She worked as a tutor through nursing school, teaching anatomy, physiology, drug calculations and pathophysiology.
Ms. Starr continued to assist in staff development until 2002, where she accepted a position as Director of Clinical Education at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center., where she teaches Certified Nursing Assistant classes and clinical, and works as a clinician, training hospital staff on infusion pumps.
She is currently a nursing instructor at Utah Career College, teaching pharmacology and medical surgical nursing clinical. Ms. Starr is currently working on her Master’s Degree through Walden University. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from the University of Phoenix (2006).
Ms Starr has worked in a variety of clinical nursing settings including: Long term care, wellness clinic, home care, postpartum, gynecology, telemetry, intensive care, surgery, and nursing education. She was a key element in transitioning from paper to electronic documentation in the hospital setting. Her expertise is in student-centered learning and teaching patient education, as well as health promotion. She chaired the Policy and Procedure Committee and Patient Satisfaction Committee, participated and reported in the Quality Steering Committee, Patient Safety Committee, Nursing Leadership, Product Standardization Committee and Disaster Committee. She was the Point of Care Testing Liaison through the lab and worked in Employee Health interim when needed, was the contact person for the nursing programs, providing orientation and placement, continues to teach Basic Life Support, was IASIS corporate contact in Salt Lake City for staff development, patient care documentation programs, patient education programs, and policy software, performed the system incremental testing, upgrade testing and new software instructions in Salt Lake City for the corporate office. and travels to various hospitals throughout the country, providing training and support for the Sigma Smart Pump.
Ms Starr is a member of National Nursing Staff Development Organization and locally Intermountain West Nursing Staff Development Organization since 2004.
Susan Sterner-Howe, RN, BA, BSN, MSN (Adjunct faculty liaison)
Rod K. Storms, MS, RN (Clinical Instructor, Nursing)
Rod K. Storms has been involved with teaching and instructing since his teenage years. Most of that early teaching involved athletics and/or physical skills. Starting in 1969, he taught swimming and lifesaving as a Water Safety Instructor (WSI), while working as a lifeguard at a local pool.
In the mid-1970’s, after training in the United States Marine Corp (USMC) and with the Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD), he became a firearms and marksmanship instructor on a part time basis. During that time he spent several years teaching trampoline, gymnastics, racquetball, and squash at a local gym.
During his undergraduate years, he tutored physics, mathematics and chemistry while attending the College of Eastern Utah (CEU) and Weber State University. After completing an apprenticeship and becoming a licensed massage therapist, he started his own business and then taught several apprentices who also became licensed massage therapists.
He started his nursing career in 1992 at Westminster College, receiving his BSN in 1994, and receiving “Class Honors” for “Excellence in Clinical Practice” and “Peer Relations.” He started working as a RN in a Progressive Care Unit (step-down ICU) and later moved to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), at Primary Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), at which time he enrolled in the Family Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Utah (Graduated in 1998).
Rod started working in the Emergency Department at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center after graduating from the University of Utah FNP Program. He then worked as a traveling RN in Emergency Departments throughout the southwest. He remained involved with nursing education as a “Preceptor” and “Nursing Resource” in the various Emergency Departments in which He worked (with both nursing students and/or new hired employees) in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson.
Rod returned to Salt Lake City, working in the ER and teaching with Utah Career College (UCC). He has taught Anatomy/Physiology, Pharmacology, Medical Surgical Nursing, Lab Instructor, and Nursing Fundamentals, and is now the full time Clinical Nursing Instructor for UCC. Rod has been instrumental in moving the new clinical curriculum forward.
Contact us, visit us, learn more
Instructors in the Associate of Applied Science in Nursing degree program at Utah Career College provide students with professional mentoring, academic feedback and clinical supervision, guiding them as they complete rigorous coursework in preparation for rewarding careers in nursing.
For more program information, or if you have any questions, please call our West Jordan campus (801-304-4224) or e-mail our admissions office. A representative will be happy to help you.