Angie Settle, DNP, APRN, BC, FNP

Photo by John Sibold

By Maggie Hatfield

Angie Settle, DNP, APRN, BC, FNP, has always had a desire to help people, which has been the guiding force that led her to thrive in the health care industry.

“I have always wanted to be a nurse,” she says. “I have a picture of me when I was 4 or 5 years old in a white nursing outfit at Halloween. I really love helping people, too, and I think that’s what drove me forward.”

Settle received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Charleston in 1993 and then worked toward her Master of Science in nursing as a family nurse practitioner at Marshall University.

“I had the opportunity to come to West Virginia Health Right when I was doing my clinical practicum for my master’s at Marshall in 1995,” she says. “I first came to West Virginia Health Right as part of that educational training and immediately fell in love with it.”

West Virginia Health Right is a nonprofit and the largest free, charitable clinic in the state, serving 43,500 low-income, uninsured and underinsured adults.

Settle started as a registered nurse at West Virginia Health Right in March of 1997. Under the guidance of Pat White, a previous CEO, she learned how to be a female leader in a male-dominated industry.

“She encouraged me all along and taught me about advocating for our patient population, showing by example the lengths she would go to make things happen for our patients,” Settle recalls.

Throughout the years, Settle worked her way up in the company while staying true to her passion: providing outstanding patient care.

“As a board-certified family nurse practitioner, I saw patients as a provider exclusively up until 2006. I then became clinical coordinator for the whole clinic under Pat White. At the time, I was still seeing patients, but I was also doing all the management of all the clinical areas until 2014” Settle says.

Throughout her journey, Settle has been able to overcome quite a few challenges.

“In the summer of 2013, I decided to go back to school to get my doctorate. At that time, I had six kids. I was working full time as clinical coordinator and had all these kids, so sometimes I would stay up all night doing my schoolwork,” she says.

Eventually, all of that hard work paid off as Settle became CEO in July of 2014 and graduated from the University of Alabama with her doctorate that August.

“This was definitely one of the most challenging years of my life, and I came away from it with a lot of extra determination and an even better ability to multitask,” she says.

In her current position as CEO, there’s no job too small for Settle.

“During the pandemic, I worked a lot doing COVID-19 testing and administering vaccines alongside my staff since I’m a believer in the philosophy that you shouldn’t ask your staff to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself.”

Settle also manages the budget, coordinates between departments and oversees new program planning, grants and fundraising.

“Overall, though, I do a lot of advocating and storytelling, which is trying to explain to people the plight of our patients, why what we do is important and why free and charitable clinics are needed,” she says. “Although my absolute favorite thing about my position is helping people.”

Settle is proud of the success she has seen in both her personal and professional life.

“Personally, I’d say my greatest success is my marriage of 34 years and my devotion to my faith and family,” she says.

Professionally, Settle is proud of West Virginia Health Right’s innovative mobile dental clinic, which is now going into its seventh year of serving five rural counties. It has provided between $8 and $10 million dollars’ worth of free dental care since its inception in 2017.

Settle couldn’t imagine giving back and serving her community anywhere else than in the Mountain State.

“There was no other option than to stay—stay close to family, stay to help people,” she says. “I love West Virginia and the people of West Virginia with our sense of family and community. I can’t imagine myself anywhere else.”