Dena Pearce-Cox, APRN

Dena Pearce-Cox began her trajectory towards nursing as a small child, caring for her younger cousin during a family vacation. Her grandmother shared with her parents during their visit her recognition of Dena’s caring and maternal nature. This nature became more apparent when she earned her registered nursing degree in 1997 from Polk Community College and gravitated towards the maternal and neonatal fields. She worked as a registered nurse at Lakeland Regional Medical Center in Lakeland and Regency Medical Center in Winter Haven in the neonatal nursery and the neonatal intensive care units.

While spending several years working as a registered nurse part time and attending to her children as a stay-at-home mother, she then received her bachelor’s in nursing degree from Florida Southern College in 2008 and her Masters in Nursing in Pediatrics in 2012 from the University of South Florida. After receiving her Masters in 2012, she began her career as a pediatric nurse practitioner in a primary care clinic in Lakeland in addition to teaching as an adjunct professor at Florida Southern College until she relocated to Maryland in 2018. In Maryland, she extended her pediatric experience with hospital privileges at St Mary’s Medical Center. In May of 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dena returned home and was re-hired at the same practice where she began her career and stayed with the practice until beginning her new position at Sonni’s Pediatrics in January 2023. She has been Board Certified with her Pediatric Nursing Certification Board since 2012.

Dena is fortunate to have her parents, three adult children and four grandchildren living in the immediate area. Her hobbies include spending time with her family, loving her Goldendoodle Quincy and traveling with her husband to Asheville, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee to see her nephew and her extended family.