Shannon Pirrie, DNP ‘21, CNM ‘15, is living her best life right now.
“I think I’m happier in my career than I’ve ever been,” she says. “Every little step I took was probably guiding me towards something like this.”
As an Assistant Professor of Clinical Practice and the Specialty Director of the Nurse-Midwifery Program at the University of Colorado College of Nursing at Anschutz Medical Campus, Pirrie divides her working hours between teaching and clinical practices at the University Nurse Midwives and the Sheridan Health Services, where she converses with most of her patients in Spanish.
Though her career didn’t move far from Loveland, Colo., where she grew up with two sisters, Pirrie’s wanderlust has led her to exotic ports of call around the world – beginning with enrolling in an international student exchange program when she was 18.
“Learning Spanish and traveling abroad instead of going to college right away was probably one of the most influential decisions of my life,” she says. “I’ve been deeply enriched by getting to know and appreciate people of different cultures outside of the United States.”
Pirrie’s opportunity to study abroad in Barcelona led to her fluency in Spanish. In 2016 and 2017, she participated in a CU Midwifery Fellowship which had a global health focus. She traveled to the Trifinio region of southwest Guatemala, where she trained and worked with the nurses and birth attendants. She plans to return to Trifinio for a 2024 rotation with her nurse-midwifery students.
In February, we talked to Pirrie about her adventures in education, and midwifery.