Sit down and talk to Nancy Carter and you get the feeling that you are talking to a favorite aunt. She smiles, she tells you stories, and she’s one of those people you know you can go to for advice. So it fits that, in addition to being assistant professor of nursing at Andrews University, she serves as academic advisor to a number of seniors. "I think I’m pretty flexible. I know that by the time they get to me they’re totally stressed out!"

"Ever since I was a very little girl, all I ever wanted to be was a nurse," said Carter. The interest led to her obtaining an undergraduate degree in nursing at Andrews. "My true love has always been public health nursing," said Carter who later pursued post-graduate studies in community health nursing at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In addition to her studies, she worked at two hospitals as well as the Berrien County Health Department (Mich.) and the home health organization, Health Care at Home, before she began teaching at Andrews in 1983.

Carter has two sons, Michael, 24, and Elliot, 18. Perhaps it is her motherly instinct that makes her so keen on helping students lead a happy life. To her, loving God is an important part of living such a life. "I think sometimes we get so caught up that we really don’t find time to just spend with the Lord," she said. Carter also wants her students to be happy professionally. "I want people to choose a career they will really love." She tries to ensure that the seniors she advises have a healthy, hassle-free start to their careers.

When she’s not working at Andrews, Carter keeps herself busy with a number of things. She can often be found exercising in her spare time. In addition, she has a small interior decorating business, called Decorating Dames, that she runs with some friends. Perhaps most interestingly, she builds miniature dollhouses as a hobby. She also enjoys spending time with her husband, Spencer, associate dean of the men’s residence halls at Andrews.

Bjorn Karlman, student news writer