Alumna Lois Alderfer (MSN FNP-BC ’90) is no good at self-promotion.

“Nursing, with its multidisciplinary approach constantly forms my work.”

FNP, chief medical officer, and School of Nursing alumna Lois Alderfer (MSN ’90)

But in the more than three decades since she’s worked at the Blue Ridge Medical Center (BRMC), a federally qualified health center that serves more than 10,000 low-income people from across Central Virginia each year, she’s racked up a goodly number of accolades, including being named Provider of the Year by the Virginia Community Healthcare Association in 2019 and earning the Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioners Founders Award in 2024.  

“Well,” she said, waving away the attention, “our amazing healthcare team’s commitment to interprofessional collaboration provides our patients with the best care possible.” 

In other words, all in a day's work for her team. 

Alderfer and her husband Steve (MSN ‘90, CERTI-FNP ’97), also a nurse, arrived in Charlottesville as newlyweds in 1989 to attend graduate school. They never left Central Virginia. As advanced practice nurses, they felt deeply aligned with BRMC’s goal to improve access to comprehensive primary care and reduce health disparities, so much so that they resettled in Nelson County after beginning work at the BRMC in 1991.  

Back then, it was a small building at a rural crossroads more than a half an hour drive south of Charlottesville. These days, it’s expanded in footprint, capacity, and services, with everything from a full primary care clinic and expansive pharmacy to shuttles that ferry people to and from appointments and mobile health units that offer care on the go. 

Seven years ago, Alderfer became BRMC’s chief medical officer. Being a nurse makes her good at it. 

“Nursing, with its multidisciplinary approach,” said Alderfer, “constantly forms my work.” 

Alderfer has a soft spot for pregnant women and newborn babies. She’s known for her work with BRMC’s prenatal, obstetrics, and gynecology patients, a role that has rewarded her with caring for successive generations. A revered provider and preceptor dedicated to training advanced practice nurses, Alderfer’s students and colleagues adore her right back, describing her as “an inspirational anchor,” and someone who “embodies integrity, compassion, and trustworthiness with a refreshing sense of humor.” 

“We moved to Nelson County to be integrated into the community in which we worked, and now I’m caring for babies of my babies. I never want to leave.”

FNP and chief medical officer Lois Alderfer, of Blue Ridge Medical Center

Alderfer’s newest “baby” at BRMC, though, is tied to her foundational belief in the primacy of primary care. With associate professor and nurse scientist Kelley Anderson (BSN ’88), a $300,000, yearlong Humana Foundation grant, and a team of colleagues, Alderfer has helped create a comprehensive nutrition counseling program and “Food Pharmacy” for county residents ages 65 and older suffering high symptom burden from chronic conditions. Given the dearth of grocery stores with fresh food in the area, the initiative offers participants a way to get nutritious food for free at BRMC, as well as advice on making healthier food choices, with the ultimate goal of helping them better control or even resolve symptoms associated with health conditions like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.  

While Alderfer admits our culture too often works backward, medically treating diseases that could’ve been prevented through healthy habits, she sees great potential in the project’s ability to heal people currently suffering from health conditions and influence younger generations’ habits as well.  

10,000+

the number of patients cared for at Blue Ridge Medical Center each year

“Given that many older Nelson County residents are helping raise their grandchildren, the knowledge gained by the study’s seniors will, I hope, trickle down to younger generations,” she said.  

It’s full-circle perspective derived from more than 33 years of work in Nelson County. Caring for families, from grandparent to grandchild and beyond, helps Alderfer to think in positive circle-of-life terms, a gift she gives to and receives from her BRMC patients. 

“We moved to Nelson County to be integrated into the community in which we worked,” said Alderfer, “and now I’m caring for babies of my babies. I never want to leave.”