The past year has been wrought with natural disasters and national tragedies. At the Duke University School of Nursing, we are proud to know our alumni, faculty, staff and students have been involved in heroic relief efforts across the nation and around the world.

Sandy Colasacco, MSN ’15, for example, is a Family Nurse Practitioner living in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. She saw first-hand the destruction that Hurricanes Irma and Maria inflicted on her community. When the island lost power and water, Colascacco, who founded and runs a non-profit primary care clinic, used her nursing skills to assist her community by treating patients in her apartment, at the local drugstore and wherever possible to ensure she was able to help as many people as she could. Her practice was closed due to major water damage and mold caused by the storms. With the help of generous contributions, Colasacco will soon be re-opening in a new space where she will once again see patients.

If you lent a helping hand in the relief efforts of any natural disasters that occurred this year, we would like to hear from you. Share your story here and be sure to send along a high-resolution photo of yourself in action, or of a scene from your volunteer work, and your entry may be featured in an upcoming DUSON story. Please note: we cannot include photos that directly feature or identify patients.

DUSON alumni are natural leaders, and we thank you for volunteering in your communities and for inspiring others to do the same.