She received her bachelor of science degree and her master’s degree in nursing from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, then went on to earn a PhD in nursing, focusing on research methods, from the University of Colorado at Denver. Dr. Hessler has worked in various settings as a family nurse practitioner, spending several years in the area of obstetrics and gynecology and as a perinatal registered nurse. She has authored and coauthored numerous journal articles and an internationally marketed text on the flipped classroom in nursing education.