Neurosurgery Care Team

Nurse Practitioners

Melissa Ballard RN, MS, CPNP-AC is a pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) specializing in the care of hospitalized children, with an emphasis in the acute care setting. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from San Francisco State University in 1985, and a Master of Science in Nursing from U.C. San Francisco in 2007. She is also a member of NAPNAP.

May Casazza, c-ACPNP is a certified pediatric neurosurgery nurse practitioner with extensive experience working with pediatric intensive care patients.  May received her undergraduate nursing degree from Johns Hopkins University and her graduate training at UC San Francisco.

Nicole Hodgeboom, RN, MS, CPNP, CNS has over 10 years of experience working as a certified pediatric nurse practitioner (CPNP), caring for children with complex medical conditions.  Nicole received her undergraduate degree from University of San Francisco in 1998 and her Masters in Science degree from UC San Francisco in 2004. 

Diana Poon, RN, MSN, CPNP, CCRN is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) with extensive experience working with pediatric intensive care patients. She received both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing from Azusa Pacific University. She is also a certified critical care nurse and a member of NAPNAP.

Bonnie Taft, RN, MSN, CPNP is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP) with a rich background in the pediatric primary care setting. She is part of our neurosurgery outreach team and sees patients at our clinic at Sutter CPMC in San Francisco. Bonnie is also an experienced educator and served as a member of the pediatric clinical faculty at the University of California at San Francisco for several years. Bonnie completed her undergraduate degree at State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1994 and later attained her Masters in Science degree at Boston College in 2003.