The College of Health Professions welcomes a pioneer nurse practitioner to the team.
Dr. Walton Reddish has served as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force and Medical Advisor to the Secretary of the Air Force Personnel Council. A pioneer nurse practitioner, Dr. Reddish has provided primary care for military families and civilians, and has practiced and taught from Florida to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
He will now teach students in Wilmington University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program. It’s a familiar setting. Dr. Reddish earned his master’s degree in WilmU’s first nurse practitioner cohort in 1995.
“Dr. Reddish also served on the DNP committee when I was doing my doctorate at WilmU,” says Dr. Aaron M. Sebach, Chair, Doctor of Nursing Practice Program. “In a way, he has come full circle and we are delighted to have him here.”
He began his career as a hospital orderly “and kept going to school to learn more.” Dr. Reddish earned his doctorate at Maryville University of St. Louis and was chair of the master’s program at Kaiser University in Fort Lauderdale.
“When I began my career more than 20 years ago, people didn’t know what nurse practitioners do,” he says. “We now do what much of what general practitioners used to do and are important providers of primary care.”
At WilmU, Dr. Reddish will focus on analyzing evidence-based care and strategies for improving outcomes for patients.
Lt. Col. Walton Reddish, 512th Aersospace Medicine Squadron chief nurse, administers the flu shot, Dec. 3 2007 while visiting the 512th Airlift Wing, Dover Air Force Base, Del. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Red Scofield)