Dr. Likes has served as dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center since 2015. She is a certified family nurse practitioner and has worked primarily with individuals with cancer and pre-invasive conditions related to HPV.

Dr. Likes is the founder of The Center for HPV and Dysplasia at Regional One Health. She is also a mentor for the American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, teaching others how to perform these advanced skills.

Dr. Likes’ research interests are HPV and lower genital tract disease. She completed a K23 grant from the National Institutes of Health on women with vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia following vulvar surgery. Dr. Likes has had multiple internal and external grants to support her research program.

She is currently a member of American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society, International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease, and American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. Dr. Likes is also a Fellow in the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease, where she serves as past chair of the Psychosexual Committee. She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Lower Genital Tract Disease and is a manuscript reviewer for multiple journals. Dr. Likes was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2016.

Dr. Likes received her Associate of Science degree from Arkansas State University in 1994. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Memphis in 1997. She received her Master of Science in Nursing (family nurse practitioner), a Doctorate of Nursing Science, and her PhD from UTHSC in 1999, 2004, and 2009 respectively.