About Andy

Andy is a Board Certified Emergency Room Nurse and Harm Reduction Nurse who helped pass Georgia’s Medical Amnesty Law better known as “Don’t Run, Call 911”.  This law allows certain legal protections for the victim and caller when 911 is used in cases of medical emergencies related to drug and alcohol overdoses. The law also allows for state-wide access to Naloxone/Narcan the antidote for opioid overdoses.  

Andy does community outreach and oversees state-wide distribution of Naloxone as the Executive Director of Georgia Overdose Prevention.  This work has resulted in over 12,000 known community overdose reversals in Georgia. Andy is a guest lecturer at Emory University, The University of West Georgia and PCOM teaching future health care providers about opioid addiction and Georgia’a Medical Amnesty Law. She has also taught at the CDC, The Department of Public Health and Georgia Poison Control and has organized several opioid education programs including a summit for law enforcement at The Carter Center. Her focus is on compassionate open-minded care and de-stigmatizing this marginalized and ever growing population. She is a graduate of Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing where she served as Class President. 

In 2018, Andy won the AJC’s Nursing Excellence award as was named one of the Top 10 Nurses in Georgia for her work in Overdose Prevention.  That year she was also given a Commander’s Challenge Coin from RAMD Edward M. Dieser, the Chief Engineer of the U.S. Public Health Service under the Office of the Surgeon General for her work in Public Health. In 2020, she was presented with Emory’s Excellence in Nursing Award from the Alumni Association. 

Andy was also long-term resident of Atlanta’s Little Five Points where much of her community outreach started and where she continues to serve.  She equips and trains restaurants, bars and other businesses in her community with Naloxone and detailed education on how to treat and prevent overdoses. This effort has resulted in many community reversals of overdoses where Good Samaritans saved people experiencing an overdose.  She is also the creator of The Georgia Naloxone Map.

Andy is a former anthropologist and primate researcher and is also a musician and published singer songwriter for the group The Yum Yum Tree and co-founder of Kimono My House a virtual venue for musicians to perform and connect.