Melissa Hayes, ANP, CHFN, DNP
Melissa Hayes is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in the Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program. Melissa has over 25 years of experience as a Nurse Practitioner and continues to practice in the Heart and Vascular Clinic at Nashville General Hospital focusing on the heart failure population. Her primary teaching responsibilities include Advanced Physical Assessment, Primary Care and Clinical Instruction for Nurse Practitioners. Chronic disease management of the heart failure patient as well as heart failure education is Melissa’s area of expertise. Melissa enjoys j spending time family and her dog Pepper. Melissa has a daughter that is an RN and works in the neonatal ICU, a son who is in college and a stepdaughter in middle school. Other interests beside Heart Failure, include reading, playing the piano, listening to true crime podcasts and long distance running.
Aura Ray, RN-BC
Aura is a Lead Cardiac Nurse at Providence St. Vincent Hospital with a bachelors in nursing from Grand Canyon University. She has been working in Cardiology for 5 years, specializing with heart failure, LVAD, heart transplant, cardiac surgery, and arrhythmia patients and education. She absolutely loves what she does and the patients that she work with. Aura loves the outdoors, trying new foods and new things, traveling, and spending time with her family and pups. Before nursing, she studied at George Fox University in international relations, programming, and administration. Aura constantly seek ways to improve herself in her health and education and to help support and improve those around her, especially her patients.
Alex Lynn, RN, BSN, CHFN
Alex is originally from Oklahoma. He has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 2015. He started his nursing career in a general ICU and then moved to cardiovascular ICU. He switched gears and went to work in a rural family medicine clinic. Since moving to Portland, OR he has worked in cardiology and advanced heart failure. Keeping patients out of the hospital using CardioMEMS technology is his passion, and he is always happy to discuss this fascinating and useful tool.
Shannon Donovan, FNP-BC, CHFN
Shannon has been a nurse for over 25 years and a nurse practitioner for 20 years. She has worked with Heart Failure patients for over 15 years. Shannon works at Ascension Saint Thomas Heart as a Nurse Practitioner in an outpatient Comprehensive Heart failure program. She has volunteered for the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses for the last four years on the Membership committee and now with the Together in Heart Failure website committee. In her free time she loves hanging out with her husband and two dogs, Ollie & Milo.
