Jodi is a board-certified family nurse practitioner with over 17 years of experience. She has practiced in a traditional setting where she saw the frustration of long wait times, short visits, and band-aid medicine along with her patients. After turbulent changes in 2021, the Lord put a new plan on her heart and closed the door to her position in corporate healthcare. She opened Southern Direct Primary Care in February 2022 where she has been able to offer the type of care that she has always dreamed of. Without the interference of insurance companies, she has been able to give time and attention to her patients and in turn provide a much higher level of care. She has discovered her passion for integrative medicine and is pleased to be able to combine that with her special interest in women’s health to provide a unique membership model alongside traditional primary care. 

Prior to becoming a family nurse practitioner in 2006, Jodi worked for over nine years as a labor and delivery RN with a specialty certification in Inpatient Obstetrics and Childbirth Education and has served in Bastrop County since 2001. 

Jodi graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas Pan American with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1996 and summa cum laude from Ball State University with a Master of Science degree in 2006. 

Jodi lives outside of Smithville, Texas with her husband. She is mother to three amazing children and has one beautiful granddaughter. She enjoys spending time at her country home with her family learning new homesteading skills, reading, and vacationing at the beach. 

Kelly is a board-certified nurse practitioner with over 4 years of experience. The majority of her career has been spent practicing in small rural health clinics. As a rural health care provider, she believes accessibility to care to be one of the most important aspects of health promotion and health maintenance. She strives to build trusting relationships with her patients and include them in all aspects of the decision-making process. She understands that no two patients are alike and respects patients' preferences, values, and needs.

Prior to becoming a family nurse practitioner in 2020, Kelly worked for over 5 years as a registered nurse in a variety of fields from stroke and neurology, to pediatric, private-duty nursing. She quickly realized however, that bedside nursing was not where she was meant to be. Kelly wanted to make long-lasting relationships with her patients, instead of having to say goodbye after just a few days in the hospital. It was at this point, she decided to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner.

Kelly graduated cum laude from Angelo State University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 2015 and from South University of Georgia with a Master of Science degree in 2020.

Although not a Smithville native, Kelly is really enjoying the scenery and people here with her 9 year old daughter. She enjoys spending her free time raising and showing West Highland White Terriers and French bulldogs as well as working with her CNC wood router and laser machine.