Monica Hughes is the Director of Public Health Nursing for the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) in Austin, TX. In this position, Ms. Hughes has the exciting public health nursing leadership opportunity to provide oversight, assist with analysis, and to join with Regional and Local Public Health service providers to evaluate and strengthen nursing practices and programs throughout the state as well as lead initiatives designated by the agency. In 2015 she received the tremendous honor of selection as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Public Health Nurse Leader. Within DSHS, Ms. Hughes serves on the Continuing Education Advisory Council, The Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies Advisory Council, and is a Nurse Planner for the agency.|Ms. Hughes received her BSN from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD and is currently enrolled in an MSN program at the University of Texas at El Paso. She has worked in many facets of Public Health over a 22 year nursing career, including Family and Community Health Services for DSHS, faith-based, non-governmental agencies, delivery of home maternal-child health services, and consulting and educating. Ms. Hughes is a member of the Association of Public Health Nurses (APHN) and the Texas Public Health Association (TPHA), as well as the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Texas Nurses Association (TNA), and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She is also a member of the Texas Team State Action Coalition, contributing to Advancing Leadership for nurses. Ms. Hughes serves on the APHN Educational and Professional Development Committee, is the APHN State Representative for Texas, and is the TPHA Public Health Nursing Section Chair for 2016. In 2016, Ms. Hughes received the Johnson and Johnson Promise of Nursing's Future Texas Regional Faculty Fellowship.