Today we’d like to introduce you to Everett Moss II.
Hi Everett, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My career really started in 2004 when I became a City of Atlanta firefighter. At the time, I don’t think I had some grand plan for where it would all lead. I just knew I enjoyed serving people, working in high-pressure environments, and being part of a team.
From there, I became a paramedic and later an EMS instructor. Over the years, I worked for several EMS agencies and hospitals throughout metro Atlanta, eventually becoming a flight paramedic. Each step exposed me to a different level of medicine and made me want to learn more. That curiosity ultimately led me to nursing.
I became an emergency room nurse in 2015, later transitioned to flight nurse and critical care. When COVID hit in 2020, I was working in the ICU and also participated in COVID response efforts. That same year, I started nurse anesthesia school at Emory.
I graduated in 2023 and moved to South Carolina, where I began practicing as a CRNA. In 2024, I had the opportunity to return to Emory as a clinical instructor, which has allowed me to stay connected to the place that trained me while helping develop the next generation of nurse anesthetists.
Today, I practice anesthesia in South Carolina as well as South Georgia. Looking back, my career has never really been about leaving one profession for another. Each chapter; firefighter, paramedic, flight medicine, nursing, critical care, and now anesthesia and education, has built on the one before it. I’ve just continued to follow opportunities to grow, serve, teach, and hopefully make an impact along the way.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Absolutely not. Simply put, life will life — repeatedly.
Fatherhood has probably been one of my greatest tests and greatest lessons. I love my kids with all my heart, but raising human beings who have minds, personalities, and paths of their own will challenge you. Being a husband will challenge you. Carrying the weight of being a provider, a professional, a father, a husband, and still trying to become a better version of yourself can be tough in an unforgiving world.
But I also have to give a tremendous amount of credit to my family. They’ve had to grow with me, sacrifice with me, and sometimes deal with the weight of the goals I chose to pursue. Through long hours, school, career changes, missed time, stress, and all the different versions of me along the way, they stuck by me. They didn’t give up on me, even during times when I probably wasn’t the easiest person to stand beside. A lot of what I’ve been able to accomplish simply wouldn’t have happened without their love, patience, sacrifice, and support.
One of my favorite questions I’ve heard Inky Johnson ask is, “Can you stay committed to the process of what you’re doing without being emotionally attached to the outcome?” In other words, if the results change, does it change you?
Another lesson that has always stuck with me is that when you come out of a storm, you won’t be the same person who walked into it.
My road has definitely not been smooth, and at times it has been unforgiving. But those experiences have shaped me, molded me, humbled me, and developed me into the man I am today. I’ve learned to appreciate the wins, but I’ve also learned to appreciate the lessons that came from the losses.
That’s why I say every lesson is a blessing
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Anesthesia/Diverisity CRNA ?
Professionally, I am a full-time anesthesia provider and also serve as a board member for Diversity CRNA, founded by Dr. Wallena Gould, who deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the work she has done exposing and preparing future nurse anesthetists.
One thing I would love for more people to understand is exactly who CRNAs are and what we do. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists are highly trained anesthesia providers. We practice in a variety of settings and models. In some hospitals, we work as part of an anesthesia care team alongside physician anesthesiologists. In other settings, CRNAs practice independently and may be the sole anesthesia provider, which is part of my practice in South Georgia.
There is also a history that many people don’t know. Nurse anesthetists were the first professional group to specialize in providing anesthesia in the United States, long before anesthesiology became a recognized medical specialty for physicians. Today’s CRNAs begin as registered nurses, typically with significant critical care experience, before completing doctoral-level nurse anesthesia education that includes thousands of hours of clinical training. That training extends beyond the operating room into areas such as trauma, critical care, pain management, and obstetric anesthesia.
Obstetric anesthesia has become particularly important to me. I have specialized heavily in labor and delivery since graduating, and it is probably my favorite place to practice. There is something special about being trusted to care for a mother during one of the most significant moments of her life. It also gives me an opportunity to be present in a space where disparities in maternal outcomes, particularly among minority women, are very real.
Outside of clinical practice, mentorship has become an increasingly important part of my professional life. Through Diversity CRNA and my work with Dr. Gould and others, I spend a considerable amount of time mentoring, teaching, and exposing future CRNAs to this profession, particularly students from underrepresented backgrounds.
That part is personal for me because I can’t remember ever hearing the word CRNA growing up. I didn’t know this career existed. Now I get to practice anesthesia, teach future anesthesia providers, and help someone else see a possibility for themselves that they may have never known existed.
For me, that’s one of the most rewarding parts of everything I’ve accomplished.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Wallena Gould has been incredibly instrumental in my career and has opened doors, created opportunities, and poured into me in ways I’ll always appreciate.
Beyond that, I almost hesitate to start naming names because I have been EXTREMELY blessed to have so many people support me throughout this journey, and I would hate for someone’s name to be left out.
My wife has been on “Team Moss” for 22 years. She has been there through just about every version of me and every stage of this journey. My kids are my reason for breathing and a huge part of the reason I continue pushing myself to become better. My mother and sisters deserve special recognition. My father is no longer with us but is the greatest man I’ve ever known and I aspire to be half the man he was.
And then there is everybody else who has been part of Team Moss along the way — family, friends, mentors, colleagues, instructors, students, and people who simply got wind of me somewhere along the journey and decided to support me.
To every one of you: THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for the love, for listening, for supporting me, for acknowledging me, for encouraging me, and sometimes just for being there.
I don’t take any of it for granted. You have been for me what I strive every day to be for somebody else. I hope I’ve made you proud, and I hope I’ve poured back into others even a fraction of what you have poured into me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_paramurse
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/everett-moss-ii-dnp-crna-nrp-8a37256a
