Current job: Vice president and administrator, DeKalb Medical at Hillandale.
Family: "Married with six children, seven grandchildren, five dogs, two birds, two frogs and one guinea pig."
What makes a good leader?
“The ability to develop a strategy, set the course and processes to achieve it, get others on board and then make it happen.”
What are you most proud of in your career?
“Nursing allows us to really make a difference in the lives of others. I am proud that I have had the opportunity to prove this every day with a wonderful organization — I have been employed as a nurse at DeKalb Medical for 33 years — with wonderful colleagues.”
Who has inspired or mentored you?
“Ninfa Saunders, MSN, MBA, Ph.D., has had the greatest affect on my professional life. She inspired me to go back to graduate school, which had a significant impact on the position I hold today. She also taught me that we should always strive to leave everyone we meet better than we found them. Ninfa continues to be living evidence of how profound that wisdom can be.”
What’s your favorite thing to do away from work?
“I love to read and [I] enjoy being outside walking and hiking when the weather is cold. I also love spending time with my family.”
Who’s your favorite fictional nurse? Why?
“In 1968, the TV series ‘Julia’ premiered. Diahann Carroll played a widowed single mother who was a nurse in a doctor’s office. It was one of the first weekly series to depict an African-American woman in a nonstereotypical role, who was raising a son alone and doing a great job at work and at home. The image of the nurse was professional and worthy of how we all know a nurse should be portrayed. The image of how strong women are also resonated loud and clear. I watched it every week.”
What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?
“Watching old black-and-white movies.”
Tell us something that nobody at work knows about you:
“I plan to work until I am 75, at which time I hope to go part time.”
— Compiled by John Brieske, Pulse Plus editor
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