Ann Hales, Ph.D. is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, who has worked for almost fifty years providing mental health services to her community --- whether it be Tennessee, Colorado, Idaho, Liberia, New York, New Mexico, or New Zealand. Throughout her academic career, she was a Professor of Nursing at Cuttington University in Liberia, West Africa and at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. Prior to that she was the Director of the Housing and Feeding the Homeless Program in the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and taught the School's first service learning course.

Dr. Hales served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia from 1981 until 1983. She received her Ph.D. at Cornell University. While teaching at New Mexico State University, she became the first psychiatric advanced practice nurse to receive prescriptive authority in the state of New Mexico. She was a visiting professor in New Zealand from 2000 - 2001 when she assisted the New Zealand Council of Nursing with their policies regarding prescriptive authority for advanced practice nurses. She currently works as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and lives with her husband in Upstate New York.