She has wanted to be a nurse since her mother gave her an anatomy book in fourth grade.

“I love science and I love to learn,” she says.

She also loves to fight.

Around the same age, she started training in mixed martial arts, a fusion of kickboxing, Jiu-jitsu grappling, and punching that her brother already was studying. Despite being one of the shortest children in her class, she won the first North American Grappling Association tournament she entered, as an 11-year-old.

“I learned super fast,” Alexis says.

By the time she was 15, she and her brother had earned black belts in Tae Kwon Do, and Alexis continues to train in the martial arts, with plans to enter more tournaments.

Her first year on the job at St. Luke’s demanded all of the toughness and resilience she and her colleagues could summon. During highly stressful moments, she was able to find help and support from other experienced Emergency Department nurses. She credits two of them – Team Leader Erin Lynch and her Orientation Leader Chantal Joy – with mentoring her on the job and “molding me into the nurse I am today.”

“I love all my coworkers,” she says. “I know I have a great foundation.”

Alexis likes meeting new challenges, and new challenges “come through the front door” every night. She plans to pursue her master’s degree in nursing, and is thinking about eventually being an educator for student nurses in the future, or perhaps becoming a nurse practitioner.

In the meantime, she shows compassion to all patients entrusted to her care, often when they are afraid, anxious, and even aggressive. That is when her confidence as a practitioner of the martial arts helps her.

“I really love the people I get to see,” she says. “I try to love and see people the way God would.”

Interested in working at Southcoast Health? Learn about our culture, explore open positions and find where you best fit at www.southcoast.org/careers/.