The Triangle Business Journal (TBJ) honored 25 local professionals this year with Health Care Hero Awards, including four from WakeMed.
All four WakeMed finalists – Susan Evans, Rosemary Kenny, Dr. Duncan Phillips and Tiffany Young – won in their respective categories. The winners were announced on Thursday, March 22 at a special dinner at the Raleigh Marriott City Center.
Winners were nominated by their peers and selected by a TBJ-appointed committee. All winners have made significant contributions to health care in this community.
“Our winners this year represent another class of exceptional heroes,” said Bryan Hamilton, publisher of Triangle Business Journal. “Whether serving those in need or working on breakthrough innovation in health care, these winners are changing people’s lives. We thank each of our finalists for their years of hard work and passion to make a difference.”
Susan Evans, RN, IBCLC, is the coordinator for WakeMed Mothers’ Milk Bank. It is one of only 10 milk banks in the country, and for several years, was the only one on the east coast. Evans admits to getting teary-eyed when she talks to a mom who wants to donate her milk after her baby has died.
Rosemary Kenny is a volunteer in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where she conducts hearing tests for premature babies. Kenny says she is motivated by the importance of identifying babies who need hearing assistance, so that “we can give them the very best possible start in life.”
Dr. Duncan Phillips is a pediatric surgeon who also helps to coordinate care delivered by other surgical subspecialists within the WakeMed system. If Dr. Phillips could change one thing about health care in America, he says it would be to guarantee all children equal access to specialty medical care, no matter where they live, the language they speak, or what their parents do for a living.
Tiffany Young works as a triage, charge, and trauma nurse in the Children’s Emergency Department. Her work has taken her around the globe, including to Haiti, where in 2010 she led a team in providing mobile medical clinics to rural areas. She also trained 50 Haitian doctors and nurses and opened a Cholera Treatment Center, which treated more than 10,000 people.
