Family nurse practitioner Emily LeVan of Randolph Center has joined the Bethel Health Center. The Bethel clinic is part of Gifford Medical Center.
LeVan earned her family nurse practitioner master’s degree from University of Cincinnati and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Southern Maine in Portland. She is certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.
She previously worked as an emergency department registered nurse at Central Vermont Medical Center, Gifford Medical Center and Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta, Maine, for seven years. She has also worked as a health care consultant with The Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine, and teaches licensed nursing assistant and medical terminology courses at the Randolph Technical Career Center.
She previously taught Spanish and was a field hockey and track coach in Maine and Massachusetts for six years after earning her a bachelor’s in environmental studies and Spanish from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and studying Spanish at Middlebury College.
An Oklahoma City native, LeVan moved to New England for school.
She enjoyed teaching and coaching, but was drawn to health care. “I wanted to do something different. I had always been interested in health care,” says LeVan, whose father is a dentist.
As she sought to advance her nursing degree, she chose family practice.
“I wanted to work directly with patients and help them achieve their maximum state of health and wellness,” she says.
She joined Gifford for the opportunity to work in her community and for the culture at Gifford. “I love that when you walk down the hall, people say ‘hi,'” she says, adding, “I feel that it’s an organization that supports the so-called ‘midlevel’ providers very nicely.”
LeVan sees whole families across the lifespan, offering accessible care with a focus on openness and encouraging healthy lifestyle choices.
With a background in emergency medicine, LeVan is a trained sexual assault nurse examiner. Her other interests include women’s health and sports medicine, especially for young people.
LeVan is a former marathoner, who twice finished as the top U.S. female in the Boston Marathon, finished high in other major races (including a seventh-place finish in the Women’s U.S. Marathon Championships in St. Paul, Minn., in 2006) and even participated in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials.
She has also traveled extensively through Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Bolivia, serving as an athletic services coordinator for the U.S. Olympic Committee at the 2011 Pam American Games in Guadalajara and as a volunteer nurse and translator on a medical mission to Nicaragua.
She is married with a daughter and co-owns her family’s farm, the ALL Together Farm in Randolph Center, selling sustainably produced meats and eggs.
LeVan can be reached Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the Bethel Health Center at 234-9913. She joins long-time family physicians Dr. Terry Cantlin and Dr. Mark Seymour and physician assistant Tammy Gerdes.
