Dana Golan for The New York Times
About Me
I have been a theater director and arts leader for over 20 years, and, in 2023, made a right turn into nursing. In August, I completed Columbia University's Masters Direct-Entry Program, an accelerated nursing program to become an RN, and started the Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner program, also at Columbia, as a Family Nurse Practitioner. I hope to pursue a nursing career in oncology, with a focus on palliative care. At the same time, I am working with Matthew Loscalzo, on a theatrical adaptation of Loss and Grief: Personal Stories of Doctors and Other Healthcare Professionals. We presented this in September 2024 at City of Hope, in March 2025 at the APOS Conference, and will be at the Gold Foundation Summit in September 2025.
While pursuing my doctorate, I work as an RN at a nursing home/rehab center, assist two oncology research practices as a student research worker, engage in hands-on practice with rotations at LaSante Health Center, CHONY, and MSK, and am on Columbia’s inaugural student advisory committee for AI and the Dean’s Advisory Group.
Why this Career Change?
Between 2017-2019, I created, developed, and directed Novenas for a Lost Hospital, a theatrical requiem for Saint Vincent’s Hospital. The show was produced at Rattlestick Theater in the West Village, where I had been the artistic director for the past seven years. The theater is around the corner from Saint Vincent’s former location before it closed in 2010. Through the research and rehearsal process, I saw the immense impact a hospital can have on a community, from the intimate and essential bedside interactions to larger systemic roles of support. At each performance, I met former Saint Vincent’s nurses and doctors and patients who all shared life- changing stories of loss, healing, grief, and community. I began to realize it was time for me to be of service in a much more hands-on, active, and immersive way. Novenas for a Lost Hospital closed in October 2019, and just a few short months later, the world felt the devastating impact of COVID. My desire and urgency to shift gears and move into the front line grew even louder and stronger.
In 1996, I graduated with a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon, then stayed an additional year to pursue a graduate degree in Arts Management, and I have since had a successful career in theater, directing and creating programming in NYC and around the country. My theater work has dealt first-hand with community and social justice issues (incarceration, housing insecurity, health care). I feel grateful for my long and beloved theater career in the theater. Now, with great urgency, I shifted into this new challenge that will have a meaningful impact on people’s lives in a more direct way.