Welcome New Faculty
Get to know the College of Nursing's newest faculty members.
Rene Love, PhD, DNP, PMHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs—Graduate Clinical Education and Clinical Professor Rene Love, PhD, DNP, PMHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, joins the College of Nursing from the University of Arizona, where she was the Doctor of Nursing Practice program director for five specialties and two practice specialties (Informatics and Executive Healthcare Systems Leadership). Her nursing career spans more than 30 years as a registered nurse and over 20 years as a psychiatric–mental health clinical nurse specialist/nurse practitioner working with vulnerable populations. Love has provided leadership to national groups working with competencies, curriculum, and scope and standards setting for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She is past-president of the International Society of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing and currently serves as a member-at-large on the board of the National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculty. She was inducted as a fellow into the Nursing Academy in the National Academies of Practice in 2014 and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2015. She had three Health Resources and Services Administration grants at the University of Arizona, supporting psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner student education in rural and medically underserved integrative sites, psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner student education in opioid and substance abuse treatment, and education and certification of sexual abuse nurse examiners. Love earned her BSN from Valdosta State University in 1985; her MSN in 1998 and DNP in 2010, both from Vanderbilt University; and her PhD from the University of Arizona in 2015.
Elida Benitez, DNP, AG-ACNP, APRN
Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor Elida Benitez, DNP, AG-ACNP, APRN, has been an advanced practice provider for the Department of Surgery and lead advance practice provider for the Surgical Critical Care Medicine team at UF Health since 2015. Prior to that, she was a staff registered nurse for the cardiac intensive care units at UF Health and Lakeland Regional Health. At the College of Nursing, she serves as the clinical site course coordinator for the DNP adult acute care track. Benitez’s research interests are in advance practice provider job satisfaction and sepsis research in critical care. She is a contributor to critical care textbooks, most recently to the Update on Concepts in Surgical Critical Care. She received her BSN in 2008 and her DNP in 2015, both from the UF College of Nursing.
Ashley Thompson, DNP, AGACNP-BC
Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor Ashley Thompson, DNP, AGACNP-BC, is an adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioner who specializes in the care of critically ill adults and continues to work in various surgical intensive care units at UF Health. At the College of Nursing, she teaches a didactic course in the Adult Gerontology Acute Care DNP program. She has previously overseen DNP students at various clinical sites and continues to precept DNP students in the acute care setting. Her scholarly interests include care of the critically ill adult, as well as staff retention and burnout in nursing. Thompson serves as an editor and author of textbook chapters and clinical resources in nursing. She is a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Florida Nurses Association. She received her BSN in 2010 and DNP in 2016, both from the UF College of Nursing.
