Jason is the epitome of a servant leader with his primary focus being on his team. Whether it be our physical, mental, or emotional health and happiness, his priority is us. Jason has always gone out of his way to get to know each of us as people first and leaders second. When Jason’s wife was battling a health scare, he was still always there for his team. He had somehow mastered the ability to juggle his home and work responsibilities and we never, not for one second, didn’t feel fully supported. Just to mention, this was all during the first major surge of COVID which all his inpatient units were the primary cohort departments for those patients.

When one of our own received a difficult health diagnosis, Jason was one of the first to show his support to her. He brought her a pre-chemo gift basket with all the essentials needed to kick cancer's behind. He was there to support her in the time away from work that was needed, encouraging her to rest and recover. When her parents passed away, he was also incredibly supportive in encouraging her to take all the time she needed to be with her family to grieve.

When a regulatory agency shows up to the facility, Jason is right there to walk right beside each of us as the surveyor inspects and questions all our processes and departments. When we needed more travel staff to cover vacancies within our departments, Jason advocated as hard as he could to get us the help we needed. When equipment started to break down, and supplies began running short, ancillary support became scarce, or when we just needed someone to vent our frustrations to, Jason was always there.

Jason has also worked extremely hard to build a culture of mutual respect, peer accountability, trust, and compassion amongst our leadership team. While we know he may challenge us on a thing or two, we also know we can come to him with anything without fear of judgment. Jason continuously asks us about our goals and what we want to do in the future. He offers ideas and suggestions on how we can grow and improve, and you just know deep down he genuinely wants you to be successful.

Something I know we all appreciate more than he knows is how he goes above and beyond to create and respect our work-life balance. One of the ways he does this is to take on additional responsibilities, sometimes sacrificing his own work-life balance, to protect ours and ensure our time is respected. Jason has been described as always being present in one way or another. He is always available either in person, by phone, or by text at literally a moment’s notice to help with whatever is needed. He also makes it a point to round throughout all his units regularly and knows the team members by name. He knows a lot of their stories and will check in with them to see how they’re doing. When presented with adversity or challenges, Jason always seeks to understand all sides of the story before acting on anything. Jason always takes a forward-thinking proactive approach to leadership to remain ahead of predicted struggles, so when the unexpected happens he can be as prepared as possible.

He is the true definition of a role model, mentor, and motivator. We all believe Jason is worthy of this recognition for all the reasons already listed, but even more so because he cares so much. We’ve shared all the ways he cares about us and our teams, but he genuinely cares about the patients and the organization as a whole. Jason is one of the most humble and selfless people we know. We are all so very grateful to have the privilege to work with him as Jason truly wants us all, at every level, to be successful, happy, and to thrive.