Linda Marie Haight Plush

RN, MSN, CNS/FNP, FRSH

Linda Plush, founder/past president of the Space Nursing Society, now serves as the executive director of the society. A student pilot and a PADI certified open water diver, she has always had an avid interest in healthcare in extreme environments. This interest led to her becoming the driving force behind the founding of the Space Nursing Society in 1991.  In addition, she continues to work on panels and task forces related to her interests in healthcare in space and extreme environments. She has been a topic coordinator for the Life Support & Biosphere Science Journal since its founding, and she is on the Editorial Board of The Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments. She is a Life Member of the Aerospace Medical Association, and was a student member of the American Society for Gravitational & Space Biology. In the past she has worked on magnetic levitation and the health and safety issues involved in its use. Currently she is working on the use of medications in the space environment, and healthcare issues for long duration spaceflight.

In 2000, Linda became the only advanced practice nurse to participate on the Therapeutics and Clinical Care Integrated Product Team, a panel which advises flight surgeons on clinical management and drug treatment, emerging technologies and procedures for the US Space Program, at NASA-Johnson Space Center.

In 2004 Azusa Pacific University, California, inducted Linda into their Graduate Academic Hall of Honor. She graduated from the post-masters certificate nurse practitioner’s program (1999) at Azusa Pacific University.

Currently Linda is also the president/CEO of two companies: Plush Systems Inc., a health education and consulting business; West Palm Inc., a mobile acute dialysis service; and partner in the Antelope Valley Kidney Institute, a chronic outpatient dialysis unit.  In addition, she is an advanced practice nurse-CNS in adult nursing and nephrology and has been an adjunct instructor for junior college nursing programs. She is a member of numerous professional nursing organizations including Sigma Theta Tau, ANA/c, the Rogerian Scholars, and the Royal Society of Health, United Kingdom.