Dr. Carrie Nelms Edwards graduated from TWU with a Ph.D. in Nursing and has since blazed a trail through West Texas in the field of her passion and specialty, forensic nursing, and has spent years as a professor educating other nurses in the field. In 2017 she was named one of the Great 100 Nurses of Dallas-Ft. Worth and is the founding director of Forensic Nurse Staffing of West Texas, which provides around-the-clock forensic nursing services in Lubbock, TX.

Dr. Edwards has been certified as an adult and pediatric sexual assault nurse examiner since 2005 by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of Texas and Board Certified as an Advanced Forensic Nurse by the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 2017. Over the past 19 years, she has treated greater than 700 victims of sexual abuse in Lubbock and Collin County. As a practicing forensic nurse, Dr. Edwards works as a sexual assault nurse examiner and as a legal nurse consultant. She is a content expert in the field of forensic nursing and has lectured both nationally and internationally on issues of violence against women and children. Dr. Edwards has testified across the nation as an expert in both civil and criminal courts at both the state and federal level. 

Currently an Associate Professor at Texas Tech University, Dr. Edwards, with 24 years of college teaching under her belt,  returned to bedside nursing in 2020, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Her work with victims of crime has been recognized by the Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime, and the Hi-Plains Chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association. She was recognized previously as a Distinguished Alumna from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing.

Published in scholarly journals, the recipient of funds for research, and a mainstay at presentations and on programs relating to forensic nursing, Dr. Edwards continues to work and collaborate with her TTUHSC/TWU cohorts and faculty. 

Dr. Edwards also answered the call when Texas residents were most in need, volunteering with the Red Cross and the Texas Department of State Health Services during some of our greatest natural disasters, working with other healthcare providers during Hurricanes Ike, Rita, Katrina, and Harvey.