Running head: INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW 1

Informational Interview: Renee Pozza

Brianna Frederick

LDRS 303: Career and Life Planning

Professor Chaili Trentham

November 8, 2019
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Informational Interview: Renee Pozza

When thinking about my dream job, my mind first went to opening up my own school of

nursing. This led me to seek out the Dean of the School of Nursing at Azusa Pacific University,

Aja Tulleners Lesh, PhD, RN. Dean Lesh was currently occupied in another country for the next

few weeks, so I sought after the next in the chain of command: the Senior Associate Dean for

Academic Initiatives and Innovation in the School of Nursing, Renee Pozza, PhD, RN, CNS,

FNP-BC. She is in charge of the operations side of the school of nursing, specifically with

operations management with our clinical sites and contracts with the hospitals.

Dean Pozza kept emphasizing that she didn’t necessarily choose her careers - they found

her where she was and she has enjoyed each of them since. When she was younger, she wasn’t

interested in being apart of administration at a school of nursing, but she always imagined getting

her BSN and RN credentials. In her specific management role. She found curriculum

development and opportunities the most rewarding part of this entire experience. On the

contrary, the management of people is what she identified as the least rewarding experience, as

many leaders would identify. Dr. Pozza’s education and credentials include the following:

Registered Nurse, Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist, Family Nurse Practitioner, ANCC Board

Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, Furnishing License, her BSN, MSN, and PhD in Hepatitis

studies. To be in the position she is in, she wasn’t completely sure what training was required

because she was never actively looking for it.

While Dean Pozza was never actively seeking the jobs she had received, she was

constantly searching to be fulfilled by any of her jobs. She emphasized that it’s a critical feature

of any job to have this fulfillment from your place of employment so you feel supported along
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the way. She is also in charge of the professional development of the staff and faculty members

within the School of Nursing. She leads many of the activities, but also brings in outside

companies to help influence the employees. She’s always looking outward for new opportunities

to bring into the workplace.

Dr. Pozza really spoke into my soul when addressing her biggest obstacle she’s had to

overcome in her career: self doubt. She was constantly doubting herself, thinking she couldn’t do

it, and comparing herself to her classmates around her. It was her intrinsic push that kept her

going, and she made the recommendation to continue her education with minimal breaks in

between to not lose the work/study habits you’ve created. The most joyful part about her job,

nowadays, is hearing about the impact and success stories that her nursing students have made in

the world. She emphasized that APU creates difference makers, and has seen it lived out through

those in the nursing profession that have graduated from here.

Some of the challenges that come along with being in administration, especially in the

school of nursing, is the business side of administration. Dr. Pozza has the nursing background,

but when it comes to the budgets, numbers, and the business side of administration, she said she

had to teach herself what to do, instead of learning it in proper education. With the Budget Crisis

of 2018 that came upon APU, Dr. Pozza had to review her budgets and restructure all the

spreadsheets and charts for her department. She was able to cut down on supplies and find more

donors to help improve the current status of the budget.

Dr. Pozza had a bit of advice to give to anyone seeking a career in her specific field. She

said simply, “find a good mentor, 2-3 people as a sponsor”. She emphasized that sponsors are not

only mentors, but also someone greatly influential that advocates for you and seeks opportunities
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for you to fill and meet. You want someone to be with you as you walk through life who can

push you from an educational standpoint to be the best you can be. This isn’t only for the nursing

career field, but any field and any job this would be greatly beneficial for.

If given the opportunity to do it all over again, Dr. Pozza would not choose another career

field. She knew she always wanted to be in nursing, and there are so many different departments

and opportunities you can find within this field, that if she got bored she could always switch to

another area. Each of her specialities found her, from being a nurse at Loma Linda Hospital to

leading a liver transplant program at this hospital, the wouldn’t change any of it. She grew into

the passion of liver failure and disease because she saw the need, not because she wanted it her

entire life.

The most important career-related advice Dr. Pozza had to offer was the importance of

your first job. You want to be extremely careful in your interviewing, and research of each

organization. If there is dysfunction already existing in the organization, Dr. Pozza advised

avoiding that organization at all costs. You do not need that influence in your first job, and you

want to have the best first job as possible. Whatever you start at (starting pay and experience)

will follow you the rest of your life.

This interview parallels with our class centered on career and life calling. Dr. Pozza went

through a similar “designing your life” program while she was in her master’s program, but it

was more of a designing her specialty. She looked at all the possible routes and did her research

to discover what the best course of action was. She found her calling and seeked mentorship in

order to be successful.
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From our informational interviews of our peers, this interview yielded some of the same

questions or thoughts. I was able to ask Dr. Pozza about the work of God in her career, and she

said that God was completely woven through it all, whereas the students we interviewed didn’t

always have a certain answer. There’s always lots of information to be learned from individuals

in the career field/positions you hope to be in.