Meet NHF's Vice President of Research Strategy, Michelle Witkop! Michelle took her passion for pain management and impactful work and joined NHF. She continues to be a vital part of the NHF community and assisting families and patients. Learn more about her role at NHF and her time working with the community!
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at NHF.
My name is Michelle Witkop, DNP FN-PBC. My role is the Vice President of Research Strategy at NHF.
What is it like to have been part of the community for a while, and then end your career at NHF?
I've been a part of the community for 20 years. It'll be 20 years about when I finally retire. I was recruited into the community because of my pain expertise, and then was recruited into NHF because of my research expertise. When I was at the HTC, I was doing pain research and NHF wanted to develop research more. To go into a research mode more.
They reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in leading their research team. It was a real grassroots effort. I was very excited that as a nurse and a nurse practitioner, they were willing to have me lead that initiative and it's been a wonderful ride. I'm very excited.
When I was at HTC, I had a lot of opportunities to participate in the nursing work group, and as an invited speaker to the bleeding disorder conferences, to different chapters, things like that. It started getting me comfortable with speaking to audiences, speaking to communities, sharing my experiences and hearing what different audiences, and hearing their perspectives from different communities, going to different states, and different parts of the nation.
I started going from a local and regional perspective to a national perspective, and I think that's what NHF really helped me to develop as a professional. Then when I came on board as a staff, I really had the opportunity to take those things that I thought were important that I was doing at a local and in a regional level to take them up to a national level and really push them and pursue them at a national level.
And the leadership at NHF gave me that opportunity. They really wanted to know what I thought was important, and what I was hearing out in the community. They supported that 100%, which I found so wonderful. They just wanted to know what the community felt was important, and then they wanted to pursue that. So that was exciting.
What is one highlight from your time here?
I think it's almost impossible to think about one highlight. There's just been so many things that I've had the opportunity to do to be part of. And again, I think it has been the support of the community, the staff, and to be able to do the things that not only do I find passion in, but that the others that I work with find passion in.
That is just truly incredible to be working at a place where you have that kind of support, and where there's a mutual interest and engagement. I love it.
Watch Michelle's Q&A video below. To learn more about joining the NHF team, visit our careers page.
