Donte Newsom, DNP, FNP-BC, is a family nurse practitioner working in interventional radiology at Allegany Imaging, PC, and UPMC Western Maryland. He is also an adjunct instructor for the family nurse practitioner program at Simmons University. Dr. Newsom earned a BSN, MSN, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice all from West Virginia University. A leader in human and civil rights in West Virginia, Dr. Newsom pursued his Doctor of Nursing Practice with the goal of opening pathways to improve nursing and health care practice. Newsom aspires to influence practice change and shape how care is delivered in the future. Donte currently serves as a board member with Fairness West Virginia, the statewide human/civil rights organization devoted to equal rights for all LGBTQ+ West Virginians. He also serves as a medical officer for Mountaineer Boys State, a board member for The Connecting Link, and on the WVNA Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee (DEI). Donte is a Fairmont, West Virginia, native and spent most of his life in north central WV. He currently lives in Mineral County.

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Sandra “Sam” Cotton is a Emerita Clinical Associate Professor from West Virginia University School of Nursing. She earned an Associate degree from Hocking College (1979), a Bachelor of Science (1984) and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (2012) degrees from WVU, and a MS from the University of Maryland (1995). For many years, Sam was responsible for leading faculty practice, designed to support WVU’s research, teaching, and service missions. As an adult NP, she has seen patients and precepted students in a university internal medicine practice and a local free clinic for nearly 25 years. A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Chief Nurse, and examiner flight nurse with the West Virginia Air National Guard, Sam is a 34+ year veteran of the United States Air Force; served in Gulf Wars I and II, including two tours with the 379th and 332nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadrons in Balad, Iraq, as a Commander and Senior Flight Nurse, flying and caring for wounded troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany. In 2007 she became a distinguished practitioner in the National Academy of Practice; has served as a nurse consultant and tireless advocate for APNs in West Virginia, and nationally, as Helene Fuld Academic Leadership and Penn Macy Academic Nursing Practice Fellows. In 2012, she received the DNP student Excellence and Alumni Leadership awards. In 2014, Dr. Cotton was named the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Practitioner Clinical Excellence Award of the Year for the state of West Virginia. A member of American Nurses Association since 1979, she is a past state vice-president and has chaired the APN Council and state Nurses PAC. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Cotton initially became a member, because our “nursing faculty said so!” Through WVNA, District 8, while living in Charleston in the early ‘80s. It was during this time the real value of belonging to ANA/WVNA became apparent, as lobbying for a real life issue nurses faced at the bedside, “end of life issues that had yet to catch up with technology”. “It seemed as if we were caring for mere ‘shells’ of a once vibrant human beings, who now were kept artificially ‘alive’ while waiting for nature to take its course”. However, nature was no longer in charge. She describes the days of “slow codes, CPR but no meds, meds but no CPR, CPR but no intubation, or intubation but no CPR began. It was terrible, to see a family torn by the hope of technology, knowing the personal belief system that their loved one would not want any of these tubes and wires connected to them, yet helpless to make it different. Lobbying for one of the first versions of the WV Natural Death Act was empowering. My patients may no longer have their voice, but I could use my voice to make a change. And so it has been ever since...” Cotton also states she would never miss an election, “especially seeing people in other countries die for the right to vote”.