Alumna on Covid-19 Frontlines as Surgical ICU Nurse

Ali Luchini, Class of 2014, is a surgical ICU nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital and has been on the frontlines tirelessly taking care of COVID-19 patients.

“Throughout this time, I’ve had the honor of taking care of the sickest patients I’ve ever seen. I've seen undeniably meaningful recoveries that I will forever cherish and remember forever throughout my nursing career, and I have seen profound sadness affect families and caregivers alike as a result of this pandemic,” she said.

After her Hamden Hall graduation, Ali graduated summa cum laude in May 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Quinnipiac University. During her undergraduate years, she received three awards for being the number one nursing student in her class from freshman to junior years.

She was also inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau Honors Society of Nursing and received the Elizabeth F. McGann Research Award for working on research in the environmental toxicology lab in collaboration with the School of Medicine and assisting the School of Game Design to create a pharmacology game at Quinnipiac. She was inducted into the University's honors program and through her capstone project studied the effects of alternative and augmentative communication techniques on intubated patients.

Ali completed an internship in the neurosurgical intensive care unit at Yale-New Haven Hospital in summer 2018, and secured a position at Yale in 2019 in the critical care nurse residency program as a registered nurse in the surgical/trauma intensive care unit.

“I’ve had the honor of giving donor convalescent plasma sent from New York, of giving the trial drug Remdesivir, and of watching and being a part of some of the most innovative ideas I could imagine. Lastly, if anything comes from this pandemic, I’ve seen the true trial of the human spirit. My coworkers are the kindest, strongest, and most courageous people I know. I feel completely blessed to be a part of this experience,” maintained Ali.

In addition, Ali and Hamden Hall classmate Nick Strada recently announced their engagement to be married. Nick points out that their relationship began on the Hamden Hall campus six years ago.

Nick is a third-year medical student at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and is beginning clinical rotations at Rhode Island Hospital.

For Nick, life after Hamden Hall took him to Brown University where he graduated in 2018. He earned a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience from Brown and was inducted into the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society. He continued in the eight-year Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) in July 2018 as a candidate for Doctor of Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

In addition to successfully completing the pre-clinical years of medical school, Nick was involved in numerous extracurricular activities. Due to exemplary performance in his first-year doctoring class, he was chosen to be a Doctoring Peer Mentor and subsequently mentored the first-year doctoring students. Nick presented orthopedic surgery research at the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference in New Orleans, as well as other orthopedic research at the AMS Academic Symposium. He was the president of the Alpert Medical School Chapter of BrainStation, where he volunteered teaching brain sciences to elementary school students in Rhode Island. He also enjoyed working as an academic tutor and helping to lead orientation for the first year medical students.

In the midst of their busy lives, Nick and Ali are looking forward to their future wedding noting, “We are excited to begin this new chapter together as we both pursue our passions in medicine.”