Esther Maria Chipps became interested in a nursing career after participating in a high school program where she observed nurses at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York. She earned her bachelor’s in nursing from Columbia University. Her first nursing position in 1983 was on the night shift in the neurological ICU at the New-York Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Chipps came to The Ohio State University when she was offered a graduate student teaching position and funding to obtain her master’s degree. She stayed on to teach at Ohio State, then took a position as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Department of Neurological Nursing. While she was on maternity leave the position was eliminated in a round of restructuring at the Medical Center. Chipps decided to pursue her PhD. For six years she cared for her three young children while completing her doctorate degree. Her doctoral research combined her interests in analyzing large data sets and neurology. For 19 years she has been a hospital-based nurse scientist at Ohio State. In this role she mentors front line staff nurses, nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists in research methods. For 10 years she has combined her nurse scientist role with being a professor of clinical nursing in the College of Nursing. Courses that Chipps teaches include research methods, research ethics, and scholarly writing.