Renee Joiner
Renee is the senior director of programs for the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation Stroke Program, a Medicaid-funded statewide Telestroke Program serving over 50 hospitals. She also provides leadership to the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation TeleSANE program.
Previously, Renee served as the trauma section chief for the Arkansas Department of Health at which time the trauma system became a reality with over 70 designated trauma centers. She has worked in the public health arena for over 30 years in the areas of maternal and child health, women, infants and children, tobacco prevention and cessation, hospital preparedness and injury and violence prevention.
She has her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a Bachelor of Science in sociology and health education, also from UCA.
Sherrie Searcy-Lyle
Sherrie Searcy, BSN, RN, SANE-A, is the visionary and the director for the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation TeleSANE program with the mission to bring sexual assault nurse examiner expertise to every hospital in the state of Arkansas via digital technology while also supporting the growth of evolving sexual assault nurse examiners and other clinicians.
She is a internationally-certified sexual assault nurse examiner for Adult/Adolescence. She has 15 years of experience as an Emergency and Trauma Nursing leader in a level 1 trauma center where her education and influential history began as a Forensic Nurse.
Sherrie developed and launched the sexual assault treatment protocol and order set to positively influence high standards of care for all patients that arrive to the UAMS Emergency Department post-sexual assault.
She has a publication in the prestigious HIV Medicine journal related to the successes of this implementation. She also has two other co-publication related to the UAMS TeleSANE program’s success.
She serves on the committee against rape for the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence and is a guest speaker for the annual conference on topics of sexual assault related to evidence collection, treatment options, and hospital protocol and also collaborates with Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault to aid in the development of new Community Sexual Assault Response teams in communities throughout the state.
Sherrie serves as the president-elect of the Arkansas Forensic Nurses Association in efforts to have influence on the state of Arkansas’ care standards while increasing the networking among sexual assault nurse examiners.
She continues active practice as a SANE-A through the UAMS on-call program, and will provide TeleSANE consultation to spoke sites.
Ashley Connors
Ashley Connors is a registered nurse currently working as the SANE Assistant Director with the UAMS Institute for Digital Health & Innovation TeleSANE program.
She began her nursing career in 2015 as part of UAMS’s first intensive care unit nurse residency program in the trauma/surgery intensive care unit. In 2017, Ashley began working in the UAMS Emergency Department, where she found her passion for working with critically ill patients needing immediate, high-quality care. This is also where she was introduced to caring for sexual assault victims.
Ashley received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from UAMS.
Ashley is a native of Little Rock, Arkansas, and looks forward to bringing awareness to sexual assault in the urban setting and in the black community.