WHERE SHE’S COMING FROM

Henderson lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she works as a registered nurse on the Medical Behavioral Unit at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. It was there—at work—that she received the news she’d been chosen as a Lauder Fellow. Her hometown is Gladstone, New Jersey.

BREAKING THE CYCLE

Henderson regularly witnesses in her current work the way that children need more support to overcome health challenges. She says, “When children who lack community support and resources are staying with us, we are able to treat the underlying cause of a health problem and stabilize the child before sending them back out in the same community. Often this results in readmission, though. I want to help grow our community supports to help stop this cycle. Children are in their prime to build resilience, and right now we are failing them as a system. I like to remind myself we can all be dominos, causing proximal change with farther reaching effects than we may know, so we just need to stay motivated and passionate.”

OPEN TO THE POSSIBILITIES

After gaining as much knowledge, skills, and experience as she can and graduating from the Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program, Henderson is open to the full range of possibilities available to her as a nurse interested in working in underserved communities. She says, “My goal is to find a place to start my novice nurse practitioner years that most matches my passions for this field with mentorship that I know will help further guide me in my development. I am really open to whatever population or location that may take me.”