Page 40 - HealthcareNews May/June 2021

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Lindsey Gamble
Director of Nursing, Mercy Medical Center; Age 35
Lindsey Gamble doesn’t have any trouble recalling when she first decided she wanted to be a nurse. She was 12 years old, and
her mother was pregnant with her fourth child. Lind-
sey decided she wanted to witness the birth of that child, and successfully lobbied those at the hospital for the right to be in the room.
“It was the best day of my life,” she said. “I immediately knew I wanted to become a nurse and hopefully deliver babies at one point — but definitely nursing. It was a really positive experience.”
She used it to propel herself into a career in
nursing, one that eventually did include a stint as
a labor and delivery nurse before she made the
transition to management roles within the Nursing
Department at Mercy Medical Center. Today,
she’s director of Nursing, a broad role that carries with it many responsibilities, including staffing, budgeting, training, and ongoing education of the nursing staff. And that list became even longer during the past 14 months of COVID-19.
Gamble is also active in the community, especially at the school her children attend, Enfield Montessori. There, she’s a volunteer — handling everything from reading in the classroom to teaching gym to working in the cafeteria — and also serves on the advancement committee.
Meanwhile, at Mercy, she has been instrumental in the hospital’s annual holiday campaign to collect hygiene products and clothing items for the homeless.
In other words, she’s a true leader — in all aspects of her life.
Chad Moir
President and CEO, DopaFit Parkinson’s Movement Center; Age 36
When someone who is afflicted with Parkinson’s disease meets Chad Moir, he asks if there is any activity they did before their
diagnosis that they wish they could do again.
Moir uses exercise programs to help people stop or slow down the progression of Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative disorder that increasingly robs the body of dopamine, which is released when we exercise.
“Parkinson’s wants to make a person small
— crunch down and take small steps,” he said. To counteract that, exercises for his clients are overexaggerated, featuring big body movements. “Applied to someone’s daily life, the exercises we work on in class will correlate to them having a normal walking pattern.”
Moir became involved in the Parkinson’s community when his mother became afflicted with the disorder and eventually died due to complications from the disease. “The love she gave me for many years is the same love I have instituted into DopaFit in helping people with Parkinson’s disease,” he said.
The most satisfying part of his work is when people can return to activities they enjoyed before being diagnosed with Parkinson’s. For example, one client went skiing for the first time in three years. “Another client who used to be a pilot hadn’t flown in 10 years because of Parkinson’s. We recently got him in the cockpit for the first time, and he was able to fly again.”
Kelly Lamas
BSEP Program Coordinator,
Mobile Health Bus Project Coordinator, Baystate Medical Center; Age 36
K
ally.
“I grew up wanting to do something to help
people,” she said, and that passion eventually led her into the world of public health, most notably her role, starting in 2017, with the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership.
Now Lamas is shifting gears — both literally and figuratively — by leading Baystate’s mobile health unit. TD Bank awarded Baystate Health a $1 million grant to fund, outfit, and operate a mobile health clinic that will improve access to preventive care in underserved urban and rural communities.
“Transportation is the biggest barrier to healthcare for people, whether they live in urban or rural areas. So we started thinking about meeting communities where they are,” she said.
The unit will provide prevention, education, and screening services while offering on-the-ground training for hundreds of nurses, medical students, pharmacists, and other health professional students every year.
“This is all about meeting people where they are,” said Lamas, who was
also recently elected to the Ludlow Board of Health. “We’re changing the way education is delivered, too. The students, who will eventually be doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, are working together and communicating in teams to deliver the best care. They’re seeing the vital role each member of the team brings and moving the needle toward healthier outcomes.”
Erin Zwisler
Clinical Director, Autism Learning Partners; Age 35
Working with autistic children is challenging and, at the same time, very satis- fying, Erin Zwisler said. “Every day is different.
The children are teaching us just like we are teaching
them.”
She joined Autism Learning Partners in 2018 and has been credited with growing its clinician team and client base, as well as expanding the group’s locations into Connecticut, with offices in Hartford and New Haven.
Within the Western Mass. autism community, Zwisler is known as an ally and an advocate for families. In that role, she has forged dynamic and diverse partnerships in the larger community.
As a board-certified behavior analyst, she was
drawn to her career choice by a fascination with
applied behavior analysis (ABA), a scientific approach to behavior proven to work well with autistic individuals. Unlike other approaches, she noted, ABA helps those with autism to achieve at higher levels.
COVID-19 presented a challenge to Zwisler and her staff because so much
of their services are provided in the home. In addition to nervous parents who feared letting outsiders in, the children suddenly saw clinicians wearing masks and could no longer give high-fives or hugs.
But she said her team treated living with COVID like any new skill they teach their clients. “We meet them where they are, then slowly and surely increase the demands and provide positive reinforcement as they achieve each step in what they’ve learned.”
elly Lamas has always taken a street-level view of
healthcare delivery — in some ways, quite liter-
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