Patricia Lea, RN, DNP, MSEd, CCRN, received a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing in 1973 from Houston Baptist University in Houston, Texas. She returned to graduate school to complete a Master’s degree in Education, specifically Health Education, in 1996 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and a Doctorate in Nursing Practice in Executive Leadership in 2014 from American Sentinel University in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Lea specializes in critical care nursing, with an emphasis on heart failure and sepsis. She started her career at the Houston Methodist Hospital in the cardiovascular ICU and opened an acute dialysis unit at what is now Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Houston Medical Center. Dr. Lea was a Cardiovascular Clinical Coordinator and Director of the Heart Failure Clinic at Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center in Waco, Texas. In 2004, Dr. Lea returned to Houston and was employed as a Senior Research Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Texas Heart Institute coordinating stem cell and cardiac stent t