Faculty Manager, Didactic Nursing Education
Nightingale College
Dr. Bethany Copper is a nurse leader and educator with over thirteen years of nursing experience. She has worked as an emergency room and forensic nurse in various settings, from large, urban trauma centers to critical access hospitals. She is a board-certified adult/adolescent and pediatric Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner through the International Association of Forensic Nurses. Dr. Copper earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Grove City College and a diploma in nursing from Mercy Hospital’s School of Nursing. Her BSN and MSN in nursing education were completed at Robert Morris University. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the Pennsylvania State University.
As a forensic nurse, Dr. Copper specializes in caring for patients who experience sexual violence, intimate partner violence, strangulation, human trafficking, physical assault, elder abuse, and child abuse. She also worked with a grant-funded project in Colorado, providing state-wide education and technical assistance to healthcare professionals, law enforcement, prosecutors, and advocates. She currently serves as the Chair of the Commission for Forensic Nursing Certification and an Ad Hoc reviewer for the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse and the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
Dr. Copper has a passion for education and the promotion of bedside nursing. As faculty manager and assistant professor of nursing, she combines her work as a nurse educator and forensic nurse to integrate the mind-body connection and teach trauma-informed care to the next generation of nurses.
