A life in service

Soldier. Nurse. Minister. Wife. Mother. Author. There’s no easy way to define Decker School of Nursing alumna Estacy Porter, PCNP certificate ’16, DNP ’17. Even if you focus solely on her role as a nurse, she defies the traditional definition of the profession, preferring instead to focus on an individual’s physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

Porter’s entire adult life has been about service, having spent the past 22 years in the United States Army. She holds the rank of captain and is currently stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as chief of preventive medicine, managing the Army Wellness Center and the departments of occupational health, public health nursing, industrial hygiene, audiology and health promotion.

But Porter wasn’t a nurse when she joined the Army.

“I always wanted to be a nurse; however, when I first enlisted there were no opportunities so I came in as a chemical operations specialist. About 10 years in, one of my supervisors told me about an accelerated nursing program and it set me on fire,” Porter says. “I knew I had to give it a try.”

Porter was admitted to the program at Old Dominion University in 2004. A married mother of two young boys, she worked a full-time job and had none of the science prerequisites. “It was a lot, but I was so determined. I needed to do it,” she says.

After earning her BSN and then an MSN from Liberty University, Porter returned to the Army and held several jobs including medical/surgical nurse and charge nurse.

For many, these accomplishments would have sufficed, but Porter had even higher aspirations — graduate school. She was accepted at Binghamton University where she earned a community health primary care nurse practitioner degree in 2016 and a DNP degree in 2017.

“Binghamton’s faculty have a mission of making sure you’re successful,” Porter says. “‘What do you need?’ were the very first words I heard from Dr. [Nicole] Rouhana [director of graduate nursing programs]. Initially my husband wasn’t with us, so it was me and our kids, and I was so grateful for the faculty who helped me manage.”

Porter and her husband — who is in the National Guard — now have four children. But Porter has a fifth “child”: She is the founder of Jewel in His Eyes Inc., an international, holistic-based empowerment ministry whose mission is to inspire, empower and promote self-love and confidence to girls and women.

“Yes, Jewel in His Eyes is my baby!” she says. “It gives me a chance to bring in my public-health background, my faith and my leadership experience to equip girls and young women to live the healthiest version of themselves.”

According to Porter, the ministry focuses on emotional, mental, physical, financial and spiritual health. “I create a space and bring in talent to speak to the community on important issues,” she says. “I did a pink-and-purple brunch that focused on domestic violence and breast cancer when I was in Binghamton.”

Porter uses her website, www.estacyporter.com, as a platform to share these messages. She’s also an author, consultant and public speaker.