JoEllen "Ellen" Schimmels, PhD, DNP, RN, PMHNP-BC, CNE, FAAN
CEO, Chocolate Brain, LLC
Dr. JoEllen “Ellen” Schimmels is a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at the Albuquerque Veterans Health Administration working in the Outpatient Mental Health Clinic and started an individual and organizational well-being consulting company called Chocolate Brain. Most recently she was the DNP Program Director at the University of New Mexico and previously the Program Director for the PMHNP Program at Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD. With over 25 years of nursing experience, 23 years active duty in the Army, her scholarship includes PTSD, OCD, and anxiety evidence-based therapies, telehealth care, trauma informed care, behavioral health policy, nursing curriculum development, and military nursing. She is married to her handsome, intelligent husband and is the mother of a bright, enthusiastic daughter and stepmother to two amazing boys. She enjoys music, golf, hiking, scuba diving, swimming, scrapbooking, karaoke, and dancing.