Driven by a passion to help others, Cindy Lynn Cochran has excelled as a certified clinical sleep health educator at Blue Ridge Pulmonary Medicine since 2015. In this role, she is responsible for home sleep studies, sleep apnea screenings, and educating patients about home sleep equipment, such as CPAP machines, and various health issues that can result from sleep apnea, such as cardiac issues, hypertension, and diabetes. Further, she has contributed her skills to her local hospital under the direction of Ahmad Ibrahimbacha, MD, since 2006. Earlier in her career, Ms. Cochran was a clinical coordinator and registered polysomnographic technologist, among other roles, at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Sleep Center and began her professional journey at a sleep clinic in Boaz, Alabama.
Attributing her success to her desire to help others, Ms. Cochran also has been registered as a sleep technologist and completed coursework toward a degree in nursing. To keep abreast of new developments in her field, she maintains a professional affiliation with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. She is also a donor to various health-oriented groups, including the Tim Tebow Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the Wounded Warrior Project. Looking toward the future, Ms. Cochran intends to begin teaching online programs, having already done some work as a mentor to students working to pass their sleep technologist board exams.
Ms. Cochran was notably the 14th person in the world to obtain the certification of clinical sleep health educator in 2014. That same year, the sleep laboratory she worked for was named Best of the Best by Respiratory Care. Having accomplished much over the course of her career, she is particularly proud of helping to establish the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital Sleep Center as well as assisting three sleep laboratories with obtaining accreditation. A distinguished Marquis listee, Ms. Cochran was named a Marquis Who’s Who Top Educator in 2023.
