We are pleased to welcome Laura Searcy and Cathy Haut to the Pediatric News Consultant Board.
Laura Searcy, MN, APRN, PPCNP-BC, is a pediatric nurse practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience in clinical practice, health policy, and advocacy with a focus on pediatric primary care, child and adolescent injury prevention, substance abuse prevention, and government affairs. Receiving her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Florida in Gainesville, she earned her master’s degree in child health and pediatric nurse practitioner degrees from Emory University in Atlanta. Currently on the medical staff at WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center in Marietta, Ga., delivering care to newborns, Ms. Searcy has served as a preceptor and clinical instructor for all levels of nursing students at many institutions.
Laura Searcy
President of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), Ms. Searcy previously served on the NAPNAP executive board as president-elect and health policy committee chair. She is a past Georgia NAPNAP chapter president and legislative chair as well as a cofounder of the Georgia Coalition of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. A member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), Ms. Searcy received the 2014 AANP Nurse Practitioner State Award for Excellence from Georgia.
Widely recognized for her leadership skills, Ms. Searcy gained much of her governance experience serving three terms, including chair and vice chair, on the Cobb County Georgia Board of Education. The U.S. Secretary of Education appointed her to the Southeast Regional Advisement Committee, and the Georgia School Board Association appointed her to the National School Board Association Federal Relations Network. Ms. Searcy also has more than 12 years of nonprofit board experience, working with children’s advocacy centers and youth alcohol and drug-abuse prevention organizations.
Cathy Haut
Cathy Haut, DNP, CPNP-AC, CPNP-PC, CCRN, is a pediatric nurse practitioner who is the immediate past president of NAPNAP. She received her Master of Science degree as a neonatal clinical nurse specialist at the University of Maryland in the early 1990s and a post–master’s certificate as a pediatric nurse practitioner in 1997. Dr. Haut completed the Doctor of Nursing Practice program in 2010, focusing on pediatric nurses’ knowledge and attitudes toward palliative care. Board-certified in both primary and acute care, she has worked in pediatrics for more than 30 years, the past 19 years as a pediatric nurse practitioner. A fellow in the American Association of Colleges of Nurse’s Leadership for Academic Nursing Program, she holds a certificate in teaching in nursing education.
Dr. Haut works at Beacon Pediatrics, a large primary care practice in Rehoboth Beach, Del. She also works part time for Pediatrix Medical Group, serving the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit medical team at the Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai in Baltimore and serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, also in Baltimore.
The coeditor of a textbook, Lippincott Certification Review: Pediatric Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Haut has published and presented on many clinical and professional topics. She has volunteered for different nursing organizations in a variety of positions, and has been an active member and leader of NAPNAP’s Maryland Chesapeake Chapter since 1996, serving as president in 2006-2007.