Let’s Talk Health is a production of the University of Memphis’ Department of Communication and the Loewenberg School of Nursing (LSON) to empower you to communicate and make healthy choices. Produced at the WUMR studios on the campus of the University of Memphis, Let’s Talk Health is hosted by Lisa Beasley MSN, NP-C, RN, family nurse practitioner and clinical assistant professor in LSON, and Gretchen Norling Holmes, PhD., assistant professor in the department of communication.

Lisa Beasley MSN, NP-C, RN

An alumnus of the Loewenberg School of Nursing at the University of Memphis, Lisa obtained her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in December of 2005 and her Master of Science in Nursing, with a concentration of Family Nurse Practitioner, in May of 2010. She has worked as a staff nurse on a cardiac step-down floor in the Methodist LeBonheur Health Care system and also as a nurse practitioner in the primary care setting and in a specialty care setting for patients with chronic pain. She now works in hospice care and at a retail health clinic. A faculty member at LSON since fall of 2010, Beasley worked in the media, namely radio, for 17 years before going back to school for nursing.

After receiving both a Bachelor of Science in communication in 1993 and Master of Arts in communication in 1997 from New York University, Holmes later received a Certificate in Medical Behavioral Science from the University of Kentucky in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Kentucky in 2003. She focuses her research on interpersonal health communication, specifically patient-provider communication and the development of interpersonal rapport. Prior to joining the University of Memphis faculty, Dr. Holmes served as an assistant professor at the University of West Florida, department of Communication Arts and Research Director for the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service, Mid-Atlantic Region. Dr. Holmes is a patient advocate for the National Cancer Institute’s CARRA program, and serves as a Behavioral Change Expert for the national bone health campaign, Best Bones Forever, for Hager Sharp and the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC.