Deb Norton first attended Union’s affiliated diploma nursing school at Albany Medical Center School of Nursing and cont. education at Russell Sage College and graduated in 1991 with a masters degree in science with a concentration in nursing and nutrition. During this time she worked as an RN in medical and surgical ICUs at Albany Medical Center. After doing a year of coordinating clinical trials in cardiology, she joined the traveling nurse corps and practiced around the country and abroad. Next Deb began teaching at the University of Vermont in the School of Nursing in 1992 where she remained for 3 years before she began a post-masters certificate program and graduated in 1994 as an ANP. She practiced as an adult nurse practitioner in a rural internal medicine practice in Vermont and began the doctorate program oaf the University of Vermont in the School of Education and Policy. She practiced FT as an ANP and In 2002 she opened the first lipid clinic in Vermont inside Champlain Valley Cardiovascular Associates in South Burlington. In 2004 Deb decided to make a change and focus more on metabolic and cardiology research. She accepted a position with Novartis Pharma as a Regional Scientific Associate Director in medical affairs. She now manages the research and development of the compounds in the pipeline for Novartis in the Northeast. Deb forged a team within US Medical that concentrated on the specific advancement of NPs in research and development throughout the country. She has had much success with this team incorporating NPs in every step of research including equal opportunities for NPs in advisory boards etc. She has been nationally recognized for some of the NP initiatives she forged. Recently Deb was promoted to Managing Director of Field Medical in Research and Development for Novartis. She is the only NP in US Medical and continues to forward the role for NPs in research within Novartis and the industry at large.