Cynthia Thompson was awarded the Lillian Heimenz Scholarship as she pursues her PhD in Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Worcester. Cynthia started on a different career path obtaining a BA in English from Holy Cross College, then went on to earn a BS in Nursing from Rhode Island College. She has been a nurse for twenty-one years and a nurse practitioner for fourteen. She eventually moved into community nursing, caring for a variety of patients of all ages while pursuing her masters’ degree. She began her pediatric nurse practitioner career in primary practice focusing on pediatric orthopedics and continues in this specialty at Boston Children’s Hospital. She has worked for seven years with children  with neuromuscular involvement, such as cerebral palsy. The children’s care is multifaceted and demanding, but extremely rewarding. Kelli has taught nurse practitioner students in clinical settings and has delivered poster presentations in classrooms and to colleagues in hospitals. Cynthia has also developed informational guidebooks to help families understand their children’s upcoming surgery.