Emma Wanjiru Luvinzu, NP, joined the neurology community in December 2024, to support neurology patients, and desires to support neuroimmunology and headache/migraine research through the UMass MS Center. She speaks three languages and joins us with previous professional experience as a nurse practitioner in the Baystate Neurology outpatient clinic and as a registered nurse at a community health clinic in the Greater Springfield community.   

Emma’s inspiration to work as a nurse practitioner was inspired by her youth, growing up in a small village in Gatundu South, Kenya. She shares, “When I was growing up, we did not have easy access to health care providers. Often the sick had to travel, mostly by foot, several miles-sometimes half a day’s journey to a one-day walk, to seek medical care in the nearest healthcare community center. There was one nurse available for the health care needs of several village members, and she would treat all sick patients, no matter their condition, on rare occasions, a patient would be referred to a ‘higher level hospital’. The community nurse inspired me to seek knowledge to help the sick. Thus, my journey began, I am more of a people person, and helping others comes naturally to me.”  

When she is not supporting patients, Emma enjoys hiking, visiting beaches during the summer, traveling, and volunteering at Royal Family Kids Camp, an organization working with kids mostly in the foster care system.