Chris Festa, PMD, APRN, DNP-BC joined the US Army as a combat medic right after college. After serving in the military, Chris worked in several emergency rooms and Level One trauma centers. In addition, Chris was the Chief Flight Officer for a company handling international medical evacuations, then served as Chief Medical Officer for a large defense contractor, and spent a year in a local general practice.

Although Stephen Heglund was an Army brat. He is a fifth generation resident of Indian River County. His family arrived in the early 1900s and has been here ever since. In 1994 Stephen earned Professional Certification for Critical-Care Nursing and worked in the Intensive Care Unit as a Critical Care Nurse. In 2001 he returned to school and earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2002, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Nursing and Healthcare Education in 2003 and a Master of Science Degree for Licensing as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2004. In 2012, he completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree with research focuses on Clinical Innovations and the Stresses Associated with being a Registered Nurse.

While he continued providing Emergency Care for the Community of Sebastian as a Family Nurse Practitioner, he also became a full-time member of the Faculty at the University of Central Florida and remains in that position today.

Samantha Gleason was born and raised in Brevard County, FL. She graduated in 2014 from Eastern Florida State College before attending the University of Central Florida for undergraduate education. In 2017, she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences and a minor in Health Administration. She then pursued a career as a Physician Assistant by completing a master’s program with Nova Southeastern University in Orlando. She graduated with honors with a Master’s of Medical Science in 2020. 

Tamsin Blanchard grew up in England and moved to the United States in 2001. She has lived in our community (Sebastian Fl.) for the past 16 years and are now raising her 16-Month-old Son.  Attending Frontier Nursing University in Kentucky Tamsin received her Master of Science in Nursing in 2015 and became a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner in October 2015. Tamsin has been serving the community as a Family Nurse Practitioner in Primary Care for the past 4 years.  In the recent past Tamsin has also had the privilege to volunteer on Medical Missions to Haiti and Uganda helping the underserved and their Communities.

Sukha is our newest employee. He is in training for being our new patient greeter and therapy dog. Next time you are here, make sure to say hi to Sukha! 

2Bits was always one of our hardest workers. She helped with greeting patients and she is also our number one therapy dog. It's not easy to find a worker of this caliber and we were happy to have 2Bits on-board as a trusted friend.