UOPX alumni spotlight: Ann Diese takes charge of her future in nursing
Written by Stephanie Hoselton
When Felicitas Ann Diese (PhD/NUR, 2023) was born in 1942, she encountered some pretty steep odds. For starters, she was several weeks early. She was also born on Antigua, an island with little medical support for premature babies at the time. The odds weren’t in her favor.
Diese pulled through. What’s more, much of her major life experiences would present similar obstacles. And every time, she tackled the odds, the challenges and the “no, you can’ts” with the same determination she demonstrated as an infant. Diese, you see, doesn’t let time determine when she does things, nor does she let circumstance dictate where she goes. Perhaps that’s why she’s gone so far.
Humble beginnings
As the sixth of 15 children, Diese grew up first in Antigua and then on her father’s home island of Dominica, where they started a banana farm on family land. While the island was warm and the family abundant, there were challenges. Poverty hit the mountainous island hard, and there was no money for high school.
Again, Diese found her way. She entered an essay contest and took second place, which came with a full scholarship. That proved the jump start she needed. After high school, she followed a sister to England to do as she did and study nursing.
“I managed to get to England and do the RN,” she says. “I started to get very motivated to do more.” For Diese, that meant working at a treatment hospital in London and then becoming a midwife and a trained pediatric nurse.
While happy things were happening abroad — Diese had gotten married during this time — things were more difficult in Dominica. Soon, her brother-in-law was asking her to come home.
Diese and her husband agreed, and Diese began working on the children’s floor at the hospital in Dominica. Her face saddens at the memory. “Poor, poor children,” she says. “Sometimes, no food and a belly full of worms.”
Around this time, Diese took advantage of another opportunity: She received a scholarship from the government of Dominica to study administration at a university in Jamaica.
“The idea was to return to Dominica to [oversee] the new concept of primary healthcare on the island,” Diese explains.
Her plans ran into a roadblock when a hurricane devastated her island. Her home was gone, her future darkened. She needed a plan B.
New adventures, stateside
Diese and her husband decided to relocate their growing family (their two children were then 5 and 7 years old) to the U.S. Virgin Islands. In St. Thomas, Diese gained her citizenship and started working on the maternity ward at Saint Thomas Hospital.
Then, Diese ran into another roadblock. She wasn’t allowed to deliver babies in the U.S. because her midwifery credentials from England didn’t reciprocate with the American College of Nurse-Midwives. So, she attended a U.S.-based midwifery course and sat for the Certified Nurse-Midwife exam.
When she returned to St. Thomas, she could start practicing as a midwife, but the fire had been lit. Just as her time in England motivated her to keep learning and advancing, her certification experience inspired her to keep going. “I wanted to do my bachelor’s,” she says. “I [was] very motivated!”
Diese went on to gain her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at the University of the Virgin Islands. A vibrant yet humble woman, Diese hesitates before shyly adding that she graduated magna cum laude.
Diese was on a roll. She immediately applied and was accepted to Georgetown University’s Master of Science in Nursing program in Washington, D.C.
By this time, she was in her mid-40s and ready for a new challenge. She relocated with her family to Willingboro, New Jersey, and started working at Rancocas Hospital (now Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital), where she spent the next 20 years progressing up to the position of director of maternal and child health. Of all her accomplishments during that time, Diese is particularly proud of spearheading the shift away from nursery and postpartum units and toward a unified mother-and-baby unit. Known as “rooming in,” the practice is encouraged by the World Health Organization to promote bonding and breastfeeding between mothers and newborns.
By that point, anyone else might’ve considered retiring. But time and age don’t have the same hold on Diese that they do on others, and she remained driven “to do better.”
Her only conflict was deciding where she would be most effective. “I really wanted to go home and to help my people, [but I also] wanted to teach nursing students,” she says. Diese chose the latter and began a 10-year teaching career at a for-profit technical college in New Jersey.
On a mission
Diese was passionate about her students learning relevant skills on the job. When she found a progressive maternity hospital that emphasized the importance of breastfeeding in a time when that wasn’t the norm, she jumped at the chance to expose her students to the approach.
“They were the first to do all breastfeeding,” she recalls. “They were getting accolades from all over the place, and when I took my students there, they would talk to the students and show them around.” Diese is as excited as a child recounting a day at Disneyland.
When the hospital, now Inspira Medical Center Elmer, received its Baby-Friendly designation, Diese couldn’t care less about her age. She only knew she wanted to learn everything there was to know about being a baby-friendly hospital.
So, in 2012 at 70 years of age, Diese went back to school. A childhood connection from Antigua introduced her to University of Phoenix. Diese set out to earn her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing, a program that has since been retired in favor of practitioner doctorates (DNP).
Diese was sustained in her decade-long doctoral pursuit by the combination of real-life knowledge, passion and excellent guidance.
“Dr. Diese is an incredible subject matter expert on maternal health,” says Sami Abate, PhD, MSHS, MSN, RN, assistant vice president of nursing excellence and clinical research at Inspira Health. Abate was Diese’s mentor during the PhD process; she estimates she’s supervised two dozen DNP and PhD candidates.
“She is also incredibly passionate about improving care for pregnant women and newborns,” Abate continues. “Dr. Diese was patient, willing to learn and focused on the end goal of earning her doctoral degree.”
In 2018, Diese transitioned to teaching at the Prism Career Institute in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Things came to a severe halt in 2021, however, when she and her husband were involved in a nearly fatal car accident. Diese took a two-year break from her studies at UOPX. “But my motivation was still there. I came back.”
Diese tells how instrumental her academic advisors were in helping her through this difficult time. “I tell you, the best experience with the University of Phoenix was my academic advisors and my chairs. They were so helpful. UOPX helps you. I got guidance all along!” Diese says.
Equally talented as a student and teacher, Diese taught her own mentor a few things. “My background is in critical care and cardiology. I am much more of a quantitative researcher,” Abate says. “Dr. Diese helped me realize how there is always more I can learn.”
This realization is precisely what Diese hopes to pass along to her students. “I want students to know that they can go where I have gone. Students in their 30s, 40s and 50s can keep moving on. I am 82!” she says. “I am still studying. I am still educating myself.”
Case in point: She wants to see her dissertation published. She also serves on hospital boards to encourage the education of breastfeeding. Teaching and learning, Diese sees more to do and jumps right in. Shrugging her shoulders as if time is irrelevant, she grins and adds, “Who knows what I will do next?”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Hoselton has always enjoyed a good story. She gained an English degree from Texas A&M University with the plan to teach or write. As life happens, she fell into recruiting and didn’t look back. Stephanie spent over a decade in agency recruiting, placing candidates at SAP, Verizon and across financial services and healthcare. She started in Talent Acquisition with the University of Phoenix in 2021. She loves hearing candidates tell their career stories and sharing the story that is University of Phoenix.
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