Renee Waskovich White

Following her winding path

White enrolled at Rutgers, New Brunswick (New Jersey), after high school and earned a double major in History and Administration of Justice. After graduating in 1998, she earned a law degree from Widener University School of Law in Wilmington, Delaware, in 2001, with plans to go to medical school next. (She had been working at A.I. DuPont Children’s Hospital while attending Widener.)

As they say about best-laid plans … “I had gotten married and had my first child while at Widener,” White says. “I delivered right before graduation and still walked [in the graduation ceremony],” pride in her accomplishment evident in her voice. “It wasn’t easy, but I did it. And then I re-evaluated my life plan.”

White had taken biology classes at OCC in preparation for med school and fell in love with the College.

“The school is close to home, is beautiful and part of my local community. After Rutgers and Widener, which are very good schools, taking bio at OCC felt like just as good of an education, if not better,” she says.

After graduating from Widener and with an infant at home, White found herself working for a law office during the day and as a unit secretary at Community Medical Center in Toms River at night — just because she loved healthcare. The veteran nurses with whom she worked wondered aloud why their colleague didn’t enroll at OCC and become a nurse.

“And I thought, ‘why not?’” White says.

While a nursing student, White had not one additional child, but two. Reagan was born early in her first year at OCC, and Sean, at the end of her second. She graduated in 2004 and, in typical fashion, made the puzzle fit together by working weekend nights as a registered nurse in the emergency room at Community. She continued to practice law during the week. In 2006, White decided she wanted to practice criminal law and left the firm of Gluck & Allen to work in the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

“At the time, assistant prosecutors were prohibited from working a second job, which was devastating,” says White. “It’s an arduous process, getting a law passed, but I knew joining the Assistant Prosecutors Association of New Jersey and having their advocacy would help me change that law.”

And she did. But she missed nursing so much that she volunteered her time at Community for the year it took for the change to be instituted. She says she has always been blessed with “advocates,” those who would work with her and support her — those who embrace her choices and offer to help, beginning with her parents and extending over the years to friends, her husband, and their children. In this case, her friends and other prosecutors lobbied along with her. She simply could not envision her life without either of the two professions to which she has been drawn.

“Nursing is in my blood, and it always has been,” says White. She explains that her cousin, Ryan, with whom she always has been close (they are only four days apart in age) had leukemia when they were young. Later, while in high school, her friend and next-door neighbor, Amy, also developed the disease. She watched both of them struggle.

“I remember thinking I wanted to help them — I wanted to help sick people. And as long as I can remember wanting to be something, it was wanting to help those who are sick. I know I took the scenic route to get here, but OCC gave that to me. It’s part of who I am, and I own it,” she says.

OCC’s welcoming environment made the challenging nursing program easier. “The tremendous professors at OCC were a big part of my life. I never felt weird or different for being an attorney. It was just as challenging as Rutgers and Widener, and [choosing OCC] was the best thing I ever did.”

White earned a post-master’s certificate toward her psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and is double-board certified as a family and psychiatric nurse practitioner. She is working toward her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Yale and expects to defend her dissertation in 2023. She looks forward to the day she can nurse full-time.

In 2020, White worked in field hospitals with COVID-19 patients and served as president of the Ocean County Bar Association.

White also is involved with the 100 Women Campaign at Ocean County College, something she calls “the best thing ever,” and a perfect way to bring in funding while allowing professional women to network and advocate for students.

“The advocacy of so many others got me to where I am today, and if I can give that back … it’s what it’s all about,” says White. “It’s a fantastic way to be involved as an alum. OCC gave me nursing and my ability to be a nurse. I felt an acceptance there and was inspired to give back. OCC was there for me, and I’ll always be there for them.”