Barbara A. Rouleau DNP, APRN

BURLINGTON - The family of Barb Aicher Rouleau is honored to have shared our lives with one of the most amazing and accomplished members of our community. Barb's accomplishments continue to inspire her family, friends, co-workers, colleagues and her students.
With her personal drive, thirst for knowledge and a desire to make a difference, she has impacted a wide range of organizations within her home city of Burlington, Vermont. Drawing strong family values from her parents, Tom and Barb Aicher, she learned to make lasting friendships in Rutland, Vermont, Boston, Massachusetts, Saratoga, New York, and Burlington, Vermont. Growing up in a large family with sisters Kathy and Susie and brothers Tom and Mike, she learned how to be independent, compassionate and resourceful.
Taking the lead from her mother, Barb entered the field of nursing at the University of Vermont and in 1990, obtained her B.S. in nursing and health education. While working as a critical care nurse in Boston, Massachusetts, and Saratoga, New York, she continued her studies and obtained a master's in nursing education from Sage Graduate School.
Over the next 30 years, Barb amassed professional skills and the experiences needed to solve the most challenging problems in her profession. While raising a family and supporting her community, she continuously accepted challenges, not because she was asked, but because she put herself first in line. Changing her focus to health care software, she applied her clinical experience to IDX Systems' first online patient record.
When UVM created their first certificate program for nurse practitioners, she jumped at the opportunity and re-entered the clinical world. Working at Colchester Family Practice as a nurse practitioner shaped her perspective on today's challenges to health care and education. After providing care to our community, she was again asked to re-enter the world of health care software; this time the focus was on preventive health. Pure Wellness was leading the industry on patient education and prevention, themes that would grow stronger in her vision to innovate her industry.
Once again, Barb jumped to the front of the line as UVM created the Doctor of Nursing Practice, an innovative program to help expand Vermont's evolving primary care landscape. Barb was one of the first two to graduate and earn the title of Doctor of Nursing Practice. Working closely with her peers in the UVM College of Nursing, her vision and purpose became more defined. She looked for ways to improve outcomes by embracing new protocols for inter-professional care. Leveraging her software background, she helped implement an improved student clinical experience tracking database.
As she approached each challenge with joy and happiness, the effect on her students and colleges was contagious. Again, Barb was asked to take a leadership role, this time on a larger scale. She became an assistant professor and joined a team of dedicated nurse practitioners that would capture national interest and admiration as they created the first university-owned family practice with a mission to teach while providing care. Constantly leading by example, she taught advanced nursing classes while managing a full patient load. Her academic interests now aimed at inter-professional collaboration and ways to improve the clinical experiences of her students.
Barb's endless energy allowed her to pursue many interests outside of her leadership role in health care. She shaped the school nursing position at Christ The King School, served on the Green Mountain Health Care Board, volunteered for her children's soccer programs and Rice Stunt Night.
The greatest source of pride for Barb has always been her family; husband Ray and children Christian, Evan and Ali. They have inherited a devotion to family, a joy of life and her incredible strength.
Having the courage to lead, and the energy to succeed is the right prescription for success. Barb's many successes are not single finite events, but the beginning of something new. The beginning of new programs, new protocols, new software systems and new awareness. They are teaching moments, inspirations and examples of what you can do if you take the first place in line. Thanks to Barb's initiatives, many people will reap the benefits, and have the courage to take the first place in line.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017, at 1 p.m. at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, 20 Allen St., Burlington, Vermont. Visiting hours will be held Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Christ the King Church, 136 Locust St., Burlington, Vermont.
Memorial contributions may be made to UVM Foundation, Department of Nursing Chairs' Student Emergency Fund, in honor of Barb Rouleau, 411 Main St., Burlington, VT 05401.
Arrangements with Corbin & Palmer Funeral Home, 9 Pleasant St., Essex Junction, Vermont.