About Elaine Furst

Elaine Furst is a registered nurse and a nurse-educator. She received her nursing bachelor’s from Alfred University in New York State, a Masters in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in Mental Health Nursing and Administration from the University of Iowa. Elaine has taught in four university schools of nursing, worked as a staff and head nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and administered a psychiatric hospital and program for mentally ill teenagers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is currently working as a background actress in movies and TV and as a part-time clinical instructor of psych nursing at Cal State LA School of Nursing. She is immediate past-Chair of the Board of the Scleroderma Foundation, having joined the United Scleroderma Foundation in 1994 in Seattle. Learning from people with scleroderma and making use of her teaching and nursing background, she has given many workshops and lectures on how scleroderma affects people, both patients and their loved ones, and has led support groups for people affected by scleroderma.