Michelle Zappas is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Nursing, where she teaches a course on clinical management of adult patients. She currently serves as a per diem nurse practitioner at the Saban Community Clinic in Los Angeles. Prior to joining USC, she was an assistant clinical professor in nursing at Columbia University. She also worked as a nurse practitioner at the medical center, providing primary medical care to the university’s health sciences students. In addition, she served as a family nurse practitioner and director of nursing at a community-based clinic in New York’s South Bronx. There she worked to provide evidence-based, preventative and cost-effective health care to a diverse patient population across the lifespan. Zappas received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in nursing practice from Columbia University. She earned a bachelor’s in animal physiology and neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego.