What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?
- I'm thrilled to join RESTORE in the Senior Director of Clinical Success role and to help clinicians provide meaningful, patient-centered care! My favorite thing to do is to collaborate with dedicated healthcare providers to innovate and deliver healthcare in a way that has never been done before. I look forward to leveraging my experience to give thoughtful clinical suggestions and creative ideas to assist users as they navigate RESTORE. It's exciting to join this team and embrace the challenge to take this platform to the next level by incorporating cognitive-communication tools which will enhance the experience all around.
How do you prefer to start and end your day?
- Well, I tend to be an early bird, at the start of my day I like to get organized, plan, review emails, etc., so that I can tackle the day efficiently. To end my day, I reflect on the one thing I did really well and the one thing I can improve next time. These are important parts of my work day, so I try not to book meetings early in my day or at the end of my day so I can work on projects and get organized and tackle the rest of the week.
What energizes you at work?
- Positive team culture, acceptance of all input, being treated professionally, and laughter.
Tell us one thing most people don’t know about you.
- When I have time I like to dabble in photography, especially car photography.
What led you to this career path?
- I have been a Speech-Language Pathologist for approximately 20 years. For the last 7 years, I have primarily served in management. When I first decided to go into this field, it was because my grandmother had a stroke and I got to see an SLP work with her. I have always found the “detective” part of my job to be most intriguing in order to put the pieces together to help an individual. I then decided to move into more management/leadership roles primarily for contract therapy companies. As I continued into my career I would welcome all opportunities to learn and found myself in roles including compliance, therapy documentation auditing, audit tool development, quality assurance, clinical specialist, and eventually challenged myself to become a Dementia Certified trainer. My true passion is dementia and I love to give creative ideas on how to approach care for a patient’s best ability to function while also including their family/caregiver. By joining RESTORE-Skills I hope to push myself to grow in the area of technology and provide creative ideas and solutions in the continued development of games and resources.
What is your favorite thing to do when not at work?
Building memories with my family. I like to spend time with my family boating, going to baseball games, and attending all kids' activities. Our family consists of Jakob (16), Alaina (13), Lacimarie (10), and Luke (7). I love attending my son’s swim meets and band functions. I also enjoy volunteering at the school or MAPS aviation museum and riding my Peloton when I get a chance.
Name the top destination on your must-visit list,
Maldives or Tahiti
What’s changed you about the COVID-19 pandemic, and why?
- While working from home during the pandemic, I realized all the capabilities available with technology. It’s amazing how individuals initially in meetings became much more relaxed as the pandemic continued including myself. I certainly missed living life and connecting with people outside of the home. The importance of keeping in touch with individuals who are most important to you and learning this from others across the board was eye-opening and also reinforced my passion as an SLP with communication and reinforced the surge of technology. A bonus is that platforms like RESTORE-Skills foster inclusion of family during sessions which was a wonderful way to connect.