Andria is a true professional. She has gained respect from her colleagues and her team and encourages compassion in the nursing role at WBH which at any given time can be a happy or an extremely devastating assignment. She reaches beyond the walls of WBH and supports committees downtown throughout the year with the understanding that networking is crucial and the broader knowledge of the organization is necessary to share with her team. She role models fairness, communicating to her team what is expected of them and holding them to that expectation, modeling the behavior that is also expected of her. (Compassion, arriving on time with appropriate ID, effective communication to all, support to those who need it, self-care, laughing, always placing the patient and infant in the center of all care, providing high-quality care).

Andria has shown that trust can move mountains. Through her leadership, she has made many instrumental evidenced‐based changes, however, most recently supported the team to change the process for the drug-addicted infant. The respect her team has is evident in the outcome of this recent initiative titled Eat, Sleep and Console (ESC). The goal is to help infants born with addiction manage their withdrawal without the need for medications (morphine). After the implementation of ESC the NICU admission rate for pharmacological intervention decreased by 25% with a 68% reduction in the use of morphine to ease withdrawal symptoms. Mother and infant remain together to support breastfeeding and bonding. This was and is a win-win!

Andria is highly trained and excels in the world of Maternal Child Health. She is not only a manager but a hands-on clinical leader who remains an extraordinary resource for all. In her leadership role, she is currently motivating her staff to accept another evidenced based change in coordination with the L&D and NICU teams. She breaks down barriers and encourages her team to see the bigger picture of why offering donor breast milk to infants with lower glucose levels is a clinically effective intervention in the couplet care setting. She is able to convey effectively to her team that acceptance of the donor breast milk in their unit will create positive outcomes for the infants and the entire family unit.

She walks the walk and talks the talk of the nursing profession. She has been engaged in different organizational-wide committees throughout the years. She promotes shared governance and role models that behavior. She recently graduated with her MSN, again showing those around her that professional development can be obtained and is worth the effort. She works effectively with scheduling so her team members who desire to pursue further education can continue working and attending school while balancing life outside of the nursing profession.

Andria has dedicated 28 years to the nursing profession, encouraging change to promote exceptional outcomes for the community we serve.