Kristina Knickerbocker is a U.S. Air Force veteran, oncology nurse practitioner, and mom of two whose life has been dedicated to serving our country and our community. Raised in a family that valued church and volunteering at local food pantries, she learned the meaning of hard work early, juggling multiple jobs to put herself through school before following in her grandmother’s footsteps to earn her nursing degree and join the Air Force. Her service brought her to the Miami Valley, where, as a major and nurse in the 88th Air Base Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, she led teams that improved medical care, health outcomes, and readiness for active duty servicemembers, veterans, and military families, and later strengthened deployment readiness for military and humanitarian missions with the 445th Aeromedical Staging Squadron. While serving in the Air Force Reserves, she found her passion as a Neuro-Oncology Nurse Practitioner at The Ohio State University Medical Center, caring for cancer patients across the region and seeing the broken healthcare system firsthand, from understaffed facilities to skyrocketing premiums and prescription costs that force patients to choose between treatment and groceries. That system failed Kristina herself when complications during her second pregnancy and childbirth, made worse by medical professionals who didn’t listen to her, proved nearly fatal, an experience that underscored the importance of patients advocating for themselves. Today, Kristina and her husband Bret, an attorney and small business leader, are proudly raising their two young children in the Yellow Springs area near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.