Lisa Cappabianca, MSN, RN, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Track

"I love that we are partnered with one of the major hospitals in the city of Worcester. We have access to brilliant minds and technology."

Former hairstylist Lisa Cappabianca, MSN, RN, has been a nurse for 11 years. She’s in the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Track in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Chan Medical School, working toward a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree.

“I have seen the trauma of unplanned acute events or unplanned death,” said Cappabianca. “I think every time I see a situation where we could have done better, it motivates me. We could have given more information; we could have been clearer; we could have had more compassion.”

Cappabianca was living in Salt Lake City, Utah, attending cosmetology school, when her mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Cappabianca moved back home to Massachusetts to take care of her. After her mother died, Cappabianca enrolled in Becker College’s nursing program, later earning her master’s degree in nursing from Worcester State University.

“I loved seeing the nurses, doctors and all our team being so attentive to her. That is how I got into nursing, and why I have decided to focus on hospice and palliative care,” she said.

Cappabianca grew up in Charlton, Massachusetts. Her aunt Eileen Terrill, PhD’07, is a nurse practitioner, and former UMass Chan nursing professor and director of the Graduate Entry Pathway program.

Cappabianca decided to pursue her DNP to increase opportunities to help her community, teach the next generation of nurses and help advance the profession through scholarly work. She completed a quality improvement project at UMass Memorial Medical Center, located on the UMass Chan campus, to improve the lives of people with advanced heart failure. 
 
“I love that we are partnered with one of the major hospitals in the city of Worcester. We have access to brilliant minds and technology,” she said.

While Cappabianca’s two young children take up much of her time, she makes time to serve as a teaching assistant and help students on campus with their coursework, while also working as a primary care RN at UMass Memorial.

"You have to trust the process and maximize the journey,” Cappabianca said. “There's so much opportunity here.”