Kendra just celebrated her one-year anniversary as Manager of Nursing Professional Development. She was a high-performing educator in the department for several years prior to her promotion to Manager in March 2020. Kendra's first week in her new role was the week that we activated HICS and began our year-long journey through the COVID pandemic. Kendra not only learned her new role as quickly as she could to support the team, but she activated her team to create and deliver cross-training education to over 300 blessing employees to work as team nurses and nursing support staff on the inpatient units as we prepared for the surge in census caused by COVID. She also partnered with Infection prevention to produce and cascade daily educational content to the health system as the pandemic unfolded and we learned new information every day.

Throughout this year, Kendra has also reorganized her team of educators to make the department's work more efficient and organized the team to continue delivering critical educational content in different ways to allow for social distancing and virtual learning options. She has helped Hannibal Clinic and BPS with educational needs as well as stepping up to release 4 of her educators to work at the inpatient bedside when our census numbers were the highest. She reorganized her team again to cover the work of those 4 educators so all critical education could be continued without even a pause.

During our DNV survey in February of 2021, Kendra spoke with the surveyors during multiple sessions and was clear, knowledgeable, and confident in sharing the work that Blessing does daily for our community and employees.

Kendra is a natural leader and leads her team with kindness and role models what "exceeds expectations" means. She is a joy to work with and has the compassion and caring spirit that shines through in all encounters.