I am happily married to my soul mate for 18 years; we have known each other 35 years. We have 3 children and 5 beautiful “grandies”. I am the youngest girl of 7 children. Born and raised in Acadiana and keeping with our culture I love people and nurturing relationships are top priority for me. I have been a nurse for 35 years and during my tenure I have been blessed to work in several different capacities in the field of healthcare. Over the last 12 years I have been privileged to work in community Outreach Health. One of my focal points has been in partnering with churches and other faith based organizations. As well over time I have been able to collaborate with too many organizations to list and a multitude of relationships have been formed. The common goal has always been to meet the holistic needs; mind body and Spirit of all that I encounter to the best of my ability through referral, connectivity, education, collaboration as well as the establishing of programs and or empowering events.
With my newest position as the “Community Outreach Advocate” of Louisiana Cardiovascular and Limb Salvage Club Foundation I have been blessed to be a part of many COVID-19 relief efforts. The visionaries Dr.’s David Allie and Ragu Patlola wanted to be a part of meeting the needs of the COVID pandemic. I was given the task to work with a team to begin Drive-thru COVID testing for all who desired to be tested. Though our efforts, partnered with volunteers from LAVA, ABNA, Southwest Primary Healthcare Center, Delta School of Nursing, OPH, United Way, and many other amazing volunteers we nasal swabbed over 3000 people in our communities. In partnership with Love Our Community we gave out over 20,000 mask with info packets along with education from our foundation on COVID-19. Our foundation continues to assist UL and ESA with COVID testing of students.
Not only have I been able to assist our communities through screening, I also serve on the Consolidated Government COVID Health Equity Task Force serving as co-chair of screening sites. Assisting in keeping the community informed of testing sites and coordinating pop up sites.
The community and being positioned to serve in multiple capacities is fulfilling. At present I serve on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters as secretary; Acadiana Red Cross and Acadiana Medical Federal Credit Union as president. I have served on the Essentials Committee of United away of Acadiana for 13 years. Also Over the last 13 years I have established partnerships and relationships with over 27 churches. In closing in the midst of all these I’s mean nothing without the power of connection.
