Issaiah Wallace ’18 chose Shenandoah because of the excellent Psychiatric Mental-Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Post-Graduate Certificate program the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing offers.
“Shenandoah offers a variety of multidisciplinary opportunities to learn from others, while providing a comfortable atmosphere for learning,” said Wallace.
One of Wallace’s fondest memories of his time at the university was when his nurse practitioner class would get together and go out to dinner. This fostered friendships that he still has today.
Wallace is a PMHNP for WVU Medicine at an inpatient psychiatric facility. He is also an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia. Prior to this, he was a nursing instructor at Salem University and clinical supervisor at Fairmont Regional Medical Center.
In his position as a PMHNP, Wallace helps acute mental illness and addiction patients in their recovery, which he finds very rewarding. As an educator, he “loves to see the lightbulb moments in students and their transition from student to colleague.”
In 2020, Wallace was featured in the WBOY 12 News Healthcare Heros spotlight series. Most recently, he wrote for an academic anthology concerning addiction in Appalachia and spoke on psychopharmacology at a local conference.
“Shenandoah gifted me with the knowledge and skills to provide care to underserved populations,” said Wallace. “Their emphasis on education motivated me to continue that vision in the next generation of healthcare professions.”
Wallace’s advice to students who are considering entering into the nursing field is: “Treat your time as a nurse, prior to advance practice, as a ‘residency,’ a time to gain deeper understanding into complex interventions.”