Kristin's compassion, dedication, and diligence are reflected in the stories of two girls with sickle cell disease. One was just starting school but had a young parent who was really struggling with sending her daughter to school on days when the girl complained of vague aches and pains, or when it was cold. The child's chronic health condition became seriously complicated by anxiety to the point where the school district declared her truant and was threatening to move the child to foster care, to ensure appropriate attendance.

Kristin spent many hours over the course of 2 years in meetings with the school social worker, the child and her family, hospital social workers, and psychologists. Thanks in large part to Kristin's commitment to the family, and continually giving the message of hope for a more functional lifestyle despite chronic illness, this little girl finally is going to school every day. Others have since become involved and supported this child's care, but it was Kristin as the primary medical care provider who held a steady course with this message throughout the child's early years so that the family finally became convinced that the child can engage in every day, age-appropriate activities, despite her sickle cell disease.

Kristin also has another girl with sickle cell disease; this one a young woman from an intensely dysfunctional family, who basically has been on her own, living with one relative or another, or in foster care, throughout most of her life. Because this girl established a close, caring, trustful relationship with Kristin early in her life, she looks to Kristin as a role model and mentor. She got her G.E.D., is going to a community college program to become a health care technician, taking good care of herself as a person with sickle cell disease, and taking good care of her newborn baby while living with a boyfriend.

Kristin is a quiet, modest person but her work is extraordinary.