Alumni Spotlight: Clayton State College of Nursing Graduate Colleen Walters is a Leader in Nursing Education

(September 30, 2026) - Colleen Walters is a proud Clayton State College of Nursing alumni who graduated with an MSN in Nursing Education and started her career in higher education as an Assistant Professor at Clayton State University. She currently serves as a Professor and Program Director of the Doctoral Nurse Program at Augusta University and is also President of the Georgia Association for Nursing Education.

Walters explained her role at Augusta University by saying, “I oversee the curriculum and admissions to the Doctor of Nursing Practice and nurse practitioner tracks. My teaching role is primarily with the family nurse practitioner students because I am also director of the family nurse practitioner track. Within the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, students can choose different tracks. A family nurse practitioner is an advanced practice registered nurse who is trained to diagnose and care for patients across the lifespan. They can develop treatment plans and prescribe medications and order diagnostics for patients in the primary care setting, like a clinic. It is actually the largest section of advanced practice nurses. So most advanced practice nurses in the US are family nurse practitioners.”

Walters served as an Assistant Professor at Clayton State University from 2012 until 2018.  In the fall of 2018, Walters joined Augusta University as faculty in the College of Nursing and was jointly appointed to the Augusta Family Medicine Clinic, where she also saw patients one day per week as a family nurse practitioner. The clinic is at the Medical College of Georgia and serves as the residency program for its family medicine doctors.

Starting at Clayton State University in 2009, Walters said, “I was a nursing major with a minor in Spanish. I graduated from Clayton in 2012 with my Bachelor of Science, my BSN, and a minor in Spanish, and I graduated summa cum laude. I was the Chancellor's Award recipient. And Clayton State was pivotal in launching my career trajectory, not just as a nurse, but as a nurse educator.”

Walters added that “Lisa Eichelberger, the Dean of the College of Health at the time, recruited me straight from my BSN to be a nurse educator. That's just incredible, an incredible opportunity. And I received a Tate Grant to continue my education and earn a Master of Science in Nursing Education. In 2014, I graduated with my MSN in education. I was learning to be a nurse educator.”

Something else Walters is proud of was that “While I was at Clayton State, I developed the first study abroad program for nursing students to travel to Guadalajara, Mexico. This was part of my passion for teaching and transformative learning; facilitating transformative learning kind of grew from that, and my master's thesis, which I published, was on the components of transformative learning in study abroad programs.”

Walters's Spanish minor at Clayton State continued to be valuable.  She said, “Not just locally, but internationally. So, I continued to take students to Hospital Civil de Guadalajara in Mexico, and study abroad experiences from 2014 to 2018, the summer before I transitioned to Augusta University. We hosted health fairs abroad with the students in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara.”

Walters takes pride in her profession as a nurse and nurse educator. She said, “We're not just the glue; we are the leaders in healthcare. We're the largest sector of healthcare: nurses. And there are different challenges, and COVID was unlike any other challenge we've ever seen. But nurses rose to the top. Gallup polls have identified nurses as the most trusted profession, just because of the leadership role that nurses play in healthcare, where they're from the beginning of life to the very end of life.”

Walters added that “Before students even come into the program, part of my work with the Georgia Association of Nursing Education is to inspire and encourage educators to continue to herald that message of, we're leaders, we are called to make a difference in people's lives, and we are. So, we are going to continue as nurse educators to support our learners so that they are prepared, they're practice-ready, and emotionally and mentally in every way to handle this calling.”

Walters explains that nurses in her program are well prepared, saying, “That's why, as nurse practitioners, my students come in at an advantage because they're already registered nurses. They really use their communication and assessment skills as nurses to get to the root cause of whatever the patient's concern is. And that's powerful. Patients respond to that, and they feel more connected to nurse practitioners. Because they are able to identify how to help them from a holistic perspective.”

Learn more about Clayton State University alumni Colleen Walters on LinkedIn.