Dr. Coombs earned her PhD at the University of California San Francisco in 2018 and completed a NIH T32-supported postdoctoral fellowship in Interdisciplinary Training in Cancer, Caregiving & End-of-Life Care (T32NR013456) at the College of Nursing, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah. She is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Nursing with a dual appointment at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Coombs current research is in treatment decision making for older adults with cancer and values assessment.

Her current research funding is from the Lineberger Development Awards and is focused on Values assessment women with metastatic breast cancer and their caregivers: Adaptation and Pilot Study of a Values Assessment Tool (VAsT). Dr. Coombs is active clinically and is an experienced hematology/oncology nurse practitioner with 19 years of experience across hematologic and solid malignancies and is a current clinician in the geriatric oncology clinic in the ambulatory NC Cancer Hospital.

Prior to earning her PhD and postdoctoral study, Dr. Coombs completed a post-master certificate as a Family Nurse Practitioner at University of California Los Angeles School of Nursing, Los Angeles, CA in 2003 and practiced as the first hematology nurse practitioner at Kaiser Permanente, her previous clinical positions included hematology/oncology nurse practitioner at San Francisco General Hospital and Stanford Cancer Center in California. She also taught quantitative measurement, advanced health assessment and research scholarship to graduate students at UCSF. She is very invested in social justice and equity issues, especially around educational opportunities.