By: Monica Forero: Communication Student
Northern Virginia Area Health Education Center’s Principal Investigator
Caroline Sutter is an assistant professor in Georga Mason University’s School of Nursing and the new Principal Investigator for Northern Virginia’s Area Health Education Center. NVAHEC’s mission is recruitment, training, and retention of a diverse health workforce for underserved communities. From 2006-2012, Dr. Sutter managed clinics for Northern Virginia Community College. The mission of these clinics was to serve underprivileged, low-income communities and give undergraduate nursing students valuable, hands-on work experience in nursing and professional skills.
Dr. Sutter’s work was concentrated in medically underserved areas and where practitioner-to-patient communication is hindered by language barriers. She worked with new technologies to assess current translation services and optimize them.
In much of her work, Dr. Sutter aims to improve mental health and health literacy. She says that these dynamics are critical to improving healthcare for underserved and uninsured populations. Currently, she is implementing a multilateral initiative to train various levels of professionals in cultural competence and critical life skills.
Dr. Sutter has won many awards during her career, including the Virginia Nurse Practitioner Award in 2016. Read more about her achievements at (https://www2.gmu.edu/news/392931).