The first thing you notice about Republic, a small mountain town in northeast Washington’s Ferry County, is the natural beauty: slopes of evergreens, shimmering golden aspens, lakes aplenty. Cows roam freely, alongside deer, wild turkeys and the occasional black bear. The timeworn storefronts that dot State Route 20 through town harken back to its Gold Rush–era boom, and miners still go to work every day in the mine. Locals place bets on the year’s snowfall — in feet, not inches — over pints and laughs at the local brewery.
But beyond the stunning scenery and rustic charm are real people and real challenges. Ferry County is one of the most remote, most economically disadvantaged parts of the state, and Republic’s tight-knit community of approximately 1,000 residents is resilient and creative by necessity.
This location and these people are what brought Devon Woodley, ’22, ’25, to Republic last year to serve as a family nurse practitioner at Ferry County Health — the only clinic and critical access hospital serving a region flanked by mountain passes that make travel difficult, especially in winter. With a national nursing shortage, Woodley could have gone anywhere after graduating from the UW. But after commuting here for a six-month clinical rotation in 2024, they chose to live and work in this rural environment to help meet the significant, immediate needs of a community located more than two hours from the nearest major medical center. Woodley hopes other nurses will make the same choice.
“People tend to think of rural medicine in terms of scarcity or deprivation,” Woodley says. “What we’re capable of is actually so much more than meets the eye.”
Finding a calling
Like the mountain roads in and out of town, Woodley’s path to Republic was a long and winding one. The 20 years since they graduated from high school in Renton have had three solid throughlines: work, education and military service. Sometimes all three at once. It took community college, a Bachelor of Arts in strategic communication at Seattle University, many different jobs (in and out of healthcare) and three military tours overseas to get here.
Their first tour, as a combat engineer searching for and removing roadside bombs in Afghanistan, inspired a lifelong call to serve others. By their third deployment, Woodley was serving in “a hazardous environment,” as the sole medic to a camp of more than 300 people during the COVID pandemic. It was a 24/7 job, with little to rely on besides an internet connection, a few medical references provided by the Army, a small pharmacy and rudimentary medical training. “It was terrifying, but also highly rewarding — I felt I made a difference,” Woodley says. “I was like, ‘This is clarity of purpose. This is high impact.’”
Devon Woodley (right) in 2019, with the linguist they worked with on deployment running a primary-care clinic and training medics in the Jordanian Armed Forces.
Woodley, here surrounded by family, graduated from the UW School of Nursing with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree in June 2025.
On a mentor’s recommendation, Woodley returned home and enrolled in the accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at the University of Washington School of Nursing. “All I brought was grit, an open mind and a mission to serve others through healthcare,” Woodley says. “The UW gave me every opportunity and challenge to become the best version of myself — as a nurse, scholar and change agent.”
Woodley knew they were on the right track. Clinical rotations at UW Medicine’s Harborview Medical Center gave them firsthand experience in a regional Level 1 trauma center, treating patients from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Harborview extended an offer, but Woodley craved a more systemic understanding of the field — so they enrolled in the UW School of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which extends beyond clinical work to include theory, research application, policy work, industry leadership and more.
The UW gave me every opportunity and challenge to become the best version of myself — as a nurse, scholar and change agent.
The UW gave Woodley opportunities to grow “not just academically, not just in clinical work, but to develop in multiple dimensions.” The two “crown jewels” of their UW experience, Woodley says, were working with Harborview’s Mobile Health Outreach Program and participating in the state’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Scholars Program, where they learned interprofessional collaboration with students in medicine, pharmacy and physical therapy. AHEC gave valuable insight into “how other healthcare professionals think, how they approach problems,” Woodley says. “It has helped me navigate conflict, produce better–quality care and communicate. It was crucial.”
Finding a community
At work in Republic, Woodley puts that cross-team collaboration into play every day. Ferry County Health comprises Ferry County Memorial Hospital and Republic Medical Clinic; as the only nurse practitioner seeing patients in both facilities, Woodley looks at patients and systems from a big-picture perspective. They work closely with colleagues to share expertise and work together to meet patient needs; Woodley notes that they’re constantly learning from others on their team.
“I wear a lot of hats,” Woodley says, a wild understatement considering they see a quarter of the patients in a health system that includes primary care, a walk-in clinic, urgent care and acute care. A UW family nurse practitioner is trained to provide care “cradle to grave,” and Woodley’s work includes all of it — the routine checkups and managing chronic illness, plus mysterious abdominal pains, fishhook accidents and a full spectrum of other medical needs. Because rural health systems like this one have poor access to specialty care, Woodley says, “I read, learn and research as I go. I’m working at a level I never expected when I graduated.”
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Doctor and patient sit in an exam room together
Woodley spends most of their time in the Republic Medical Clinic, where their youngest patients are just weeks old and their oldest patient just turned 100. The joy in working at a rural clinic where you see everything is that you have to get creative in your problem solving and work with the people and resources available to you, Woodley says.
Some hospital staff affectionately refer to local residents as “Ferry County tough,” meaning sometimes patients aren’t seeing a doctor at all until there’s a real emergency. Woodley’s working on systemic change, like getting ER patients set up with a primary care clinician. “I really care about building efficiency and optimization into the broader system. And that came directly from my experience at the UW.”
When a patient is critically ill beyond Ferry County Health’s capacity, they’re taken by helicopter to hospitals in Seattle or Spokane; this happens a few times a week, as weather permits. But Woodley and their capable, creative colleagues can meet most patient needs right there.
Aerial video of Republic, Washington
An aerial view of Republic, Washington
“In rural healthcare you get strong, close-knit teams who are used to austerity, so they’re used to adapting,” Woodley says. “You have to figure out a new way of doing something to meet the patients’ needs. That’s the joy of rural health.”
Beyond their heavy load of day-to-day responsibilities, Woodley still serves in the Washington Army National Guard and on the advisory committee for the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program, which aims to expand access, enhance quality of care and improve outcomes for rural communities. There truly aren’t enough hours in the day. “But a good day for me is not a measure of how long I worked or whether it was easy or not,” they say. “In fact, most days are challenging and long. A good day means finding patients a pathway to a better quality of life. Making an impact and a connection with these folks makes me happy and makes my day worth it.”
Woodley and their wife, Sharon Sahi, find peace and quiet at home on the 130 acres they rent (with their two dogs) in Ferry County.
A good day means finding patients a pathway to a better quality of life. Making an impact and a connection with these folks makes me happy and makes my day worth it.
Finding a home
A good day also means the chance to recharge with their wife, Sharon Sahi, ’07, ’24, who works as a medical laboratory scientist for Ferry County Health, and two joyous rescue pups on the 130-acre property they rent just outside of town. The evergreens, pond, wildlife and miles of trails are a strong contrast from the apartment where they’d lived in north Seattle. It’s a much-needed sanctuary for a natural introvert whose job involves so much personal interaction.
Here, away from urban options like takeout and same-day deliveries, Woodley has built a life based on thinking outside the box. “What makes rural health, and rural living, amazing is not the scarcity of things — the scarcity is a benefit in the sense that you have to think a little harder. You have to be flexible. It’s a little less driven by technology and a little more driven by humans, more understanding. And it doesn’t hurt that rural settings are some of the most beautiful places in the world,” they say, looking out from their deck onto the mountains in the distance. “The bottom line is that this is a beautiful challenge.”
Story by Chelsea Lin // Photos by Dennis Wise
Originally published November 2026
UW School of Nursing: three campuses, one goal
Preparing students for professional success is at the heart of the UW experience, and the School of Nursing takes that mission seriously — for the good of future nurses and patients alike.
With seven degree programs across three campuses in Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma, the School of Nursing offers multiple pathways and entry points, all focused on one goal: expanding student access, to ultimately improve health for communities all over the state, especially in rural and underserved areas.
The school places students in clinical education sites across 30 of Washington’s 39 counties, including isolated areas like Republic, “where access to healthcare providers and workforce recruitment can present significant challenges,” says Jennifer Segadelli, the School of Nursing’s executive director of academic and clinical services. Thanks to those partnerships, she says, “students experience the unique healthcare needs of rural and underserved populations while building relationships with the communities and healthcare organizations that serve them.”
The federally funded Advanced Nursing Education Workforce in Washington (ANEW-WA) program supports nursing students like Woodley to train in rural rotations. Segadelli says nearly 75% of ANEW-WA graduates continue to work in rural or medically underserved areas, “demonstrating how targeted investments in nursing education can translate into meaningful workforce outcomes for Washington communities.”
