Bio
I started my healthcare career in 2004 as a dietary aide in a nursing home kitchen in Vestal, New York, where I grew up. While there, I finished training as a certified nursing assistant and worked consistently as a CNA until I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Liberty University in 2011. After passing my nursing board exams, I started working in an intermediate care/intensive care unit in El Paso, Texas. My life journey took me to a small town in upstate New York called Lowville, which happens to be the current home of the actor who played Charlie Bucket from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I practiced Dialysis/Nephrology nursing for 3 years. The company I was with moved me to Roanoke, Virigina, where I took over leadership of a struggling clinic. After a short time doing that, I transitioned to Medical Director of a group home for adults with intellectual disability. In 2018, I was blessed to receive an offer to be a school nurse in an elementary school and my passion for underserved and unhoused children started.
In 2020, when COVID-19 hit, I moved to Tennessee and started working with the University of Tennessee's Medical Center as a critical care dialysis nurse. The needs were extensive and burn out was real. I saw a lot during this time and saw what nursing was never meant to be. I was thankfully able to get out of the hospital and return to the school setting in 2022, where I worked for Knox County Schools at their stand-alone special needs preschool. During this time, I finished my Master of Science in Nursing with a focus in Public Health from Aspen University. In 2025, I was honored to accept my current position with Tennessee Schools for the Deaf - Knoxville.
In my personal life, I am a wife of 5 years, and mother to 4 wonderful children. 3 of my 4 children have various special needs and I am a strong advocate for full inclusion. I often say a person is not disabled they are differently abled; they can do everything a person without their differences can do; how they do it will be different. I never allow my children's medical limitations to be an excuse for them not to participate fully in whatever their passion is. I bring this same fire to my work here at TSD.
In 2020, when COVID-19 hit, I moved to Tennessee and started working with the University of Tennessee's Medical Center as a critical care dialysis nurse. The needs were extensive and burn out was real. I saw a lot during this time and saw what nursing was never meant to be. I was thankfully able to get out of the hospital and return to the school setting in 2022, where I worked for Knox County Schools at their stand-alone special needs preschool. During this time, I finished my Master of Science in Nursing with a focus in Public Health from Aspen University. In 2025, I was honored to accept my current position with Tennessee Schools for the Deaf - Knoxville.
In my personal life, I am a wife of 5 years, and mother to 4 wonderful children. 3 of my 4 children have various special needs and I am a strong advocate for full inclusion. I often say a person is not disabled they are differently abled; they can do everything a person without their differences can do; how they do it will be different. I never allow my children's medical limitations to be an excuse for them not to participate fully in whatever their passion is. I bring this same fire to my work here at TSD.
- Name
- Alison Frye
- Position
- Health Services Medical Clinic Supervisor