Rhiannon Powell moved to Jacksonville when she was 8 years old and only left once when she attended the University of Florida. In 2002, after graduation, she moved to Riverside and began working at Ascension St. Vincent’s as a nurse in the emergency department.
“And I just stayed here ever since,” she added.
In 2003, she and her husband, Kevin, bought a home in Murray Hill and completely remodeled it. “We saw that growth and progress,” she said. “It’s been great to see the transition of that area.”
When they first moved to Murray Hill, Community Loaves operated out of a church’s kitchen, and they delivered baked goods by bicycle to the Powell’s home. She said it’s been amazing to see them thrive along with other businesses in the area.
Now the Powells live in Avondale in a home they have been renovating since purchasing it in 2021.
“We pretty much do all the labor ourselves,” she said. “It’s definitely been a labor of love.”
They spent the first six months demolishing the house. It was a construction zone for quite some time, as the family refurbished the home’s hardwood floors and completely renovated the kitchen and bathrooms. But the project is nearly complete.
“We love this neighborhood,” she said. “We can walk or ride our bikes to places, and it has such character and history.”
She and her husband grew up in Orange Park. While they attended different high schools, the couple graduated the same year and had several mutual friends. They don’t recall ever meeting, though, until they both worked at the same Orange Park restaurant when Rhiannon Powell was in her last year of college. Kevin had just gotten out of the military.
“We just kind of started hanging out, and then four years later, we were married with a kid,” she said.
Their oldest child, Kaden, is 20 years old and a sophomore at the University of Florida. Son Jackson is 14.
When they were deciding where to live, the couple knew that neither of them wanted to go back to living in the suburbs.
“It’s been great to raise our kids here,” she said. “We’ve made some great friends along the way in the neighborhood. And I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
It also helps that work is close by. While she covers all four hospitals in the area, Powell’s office is in Riverside. She started working at the Riverside hospital after nursing school and never left. She had both of her children at that hospital as well. Over the years, she worked her way up from a nurse in the emergency department to the manager of nurse education.
Yet Powell didn’t immediately pursue nursing after graduating from college. Halfway through nursing school, she switched to business. After working for Merrill Lynch for a year, however, she realized that wasn’t for her.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t like this,’” Powell said. “‘I made a mistake.’”
She decided to go back to college and finish nursing school, working as a tech while completing her degree.
Serving the community
Powell said she always knew she wanted to give back to her community. Her father was a firefighter and paramedic, and she remembers him teaching first-aid classes and bringing home the CPR dummy.
“I just knew that I wanted to do something in emergency medicine,” she said. “And I was always drawn to the ER, and I do love it. It is chaotic, but it’s definitely controlled chaos.
“The ER is where I knew I could give the most back to my community,” she continued. “Sometimes you’re the first to see these patients and you can recognize the emergencies. It’s just a great way to connect and to try to make a difference in someone’s life.”
After working as an ER nurse, she transitioned into education and training. The hospital didn’t have a nurse residency program for emergency nurses, so Powell developed the first program there.
“When you come out of school with a nursing shortage, you have to hire brand new nurses into specialties,” she said. “It’s not ideal, but it’s reality.”
She wanted to train these new nurses and create a safe space for them to learn.
“I love having that impact with new nurses and giving them the tools they need to be able to safely care for our patients,” she said. “It’s been great to see how it’s evolved.”
Since starting that program, she now oversees all nurse education.
“Health care is very dynamic,” she said. “And education is even more important with our nurses, that we make sure they are equipped with the tools they need to do their job every day.”
In addition to giving back to her community through her career, Powell also finds time to give back in her personal life. She has been a member of the Junior League for eight years, serving in numerous leadership roles, and is also actively involved in CISV, a nonprofit that offers international camp-based, family exchange and local community programs. In addition to serving on the organization’s board, Powell and her family have hosted students from the Czech Republic, while son Kaden has visited several countries and served as a program leader last summer in Spain. Son Jackson, meanwhile, was heading to Switzerland this year.
When Powell isn’t serving her community or renovating her home, she enjoys boating and attending University of Florida and Jaguars football games with her family. She also loves to travel: She has visited Italy three times and is working on getting her dual citizenship from that country, which is where her great-grandfather was born.
And when it comes to selecting destinations, she said, the family’s criteria is simple.
“We like anywhere where we can go, be outdoors and go on an adventure.”
