Katie Volkers, MSN, APRN, CNS-BC, CNRN

About Katie Volkers

Ms. Katie Volkers, MSN, APRN, CNS-BC, CNRN is both the Clinical Director and Advanced Practice Nurse here at Austin Integrative Spine. Katie has been working closely with Dr. Madera at Austin Integrative Spine since September 2020 and as a neurosurgical advanced practice provider since 2012. Katie is expanding her independent collaborative practice as an integrative practitioner and confidently leading our team of gifted practitioners and support staff. Katie has over a decade of experience as a neurosurgical provider at our local Level 1 Trauma Center. Despite her long-held passion for neuroscience, she made the carefully weighed decision in 2020 to leave conventional medicine so she could pursue a more holistic and integrative approach to neurosurgical problems.

As Austin Integrative Spine has grown and evolved, Katie has been an integral player in implementing new regenerative medicine technology. In addition to supporting Dr. Marcella Madera in her clinical role, Katie has been researching and implementing new strategies to optimize both patient outcomes and smooth administrative clinic flow. She was the first to describe our approach as “cutting edge without cutting”, and continues to collaborate with the team to develop new programs and potential therapies to add to our multidisciplinary practice.

Katie is a knowledgeable and compassionate provider. She is quick to pull out peer-reviewed literature to support her point, but also empathetic to our patients who are often suffering from complex problems lacking a simple solution. Outside of work, Katie enjoys spending time with her family (two children, husband, Aussie Doxie puppy, and 17-year-old kitty), volunteering with Cub Scouts, walking in nature, and pursuing her current creative hyper-fixation: watercolor painting. Below is a picture of Katie proudly showing her intricate hand embroidery piece of the skull base anatomy with a color-coded diagram of the twelve cranial nerves’ anatomy and their unique function.