Since 2010, Dr. Widener has been responsible for teaching the courses NUR 323 “Nursing Human Responses III” and NUR 324, “Nursing Human Responses IV” (Junior level Medical-Surgical nursing). She is a registered nurse in the states of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia and has been a critical care registered nurse (CCRN) since 1979. Dr. Widener received her BSN from East Tennessee State University in 1980, her MSN from Vanderbilt University in 1983 and her Ph.D. in nursing with a focus in psychophysiology from The Ohio State University in 2008. When she was working on her Ph.D., Dr. Widener worked as a research assistant at OSU with heart failure human and animal research. In 2011, Dr. Widener published her research on peripheral arterial disease and disability in the Journal of Vascular Nursing.