Kathyrn is the 5th floor Shared Governance rep who has truly taken her role Seriously. She Keeps us all informed and has taken a Leader- like role on the unit.

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Off to a great start. What great outfits.

"Elois Williams is a nurse recruiter in HR. Prior to that, she spent many years as a surgery RN. Since the COVID outbreak, Elois has gone above and beyond her normal recruitment duties and put her RN hat (and at times, her scrubs!) back on. She assisted with temperature screens, mask fit testing (which she is still doing today) and even worked in the Emergency Department COVID tent. She did all of this on her own time while continuing to excel in her nurse recruitment duties. Elois is a true team player who is always willing to help in any way she can. She is compassionate and enthusiastic in everything she does. Elois is our ""office mom"" and takes care of her co workers just like she does our patients!"

If anyone has every worked with Lil, then they know how dedicated she is to the Cancer Rehab Program. She is constantly putting the patients first, and doing whatever is needed to provide the best care possible. She provides excellent support to her staff and supports them in whatever they need. Lil is compassionate, motivated and committed to her role at Touro, making her the best person to accept this award.

Christina is one of a kind. Everyday she comes into the clinic with a positive mindset and approach. She's skilled, unique, helpful, dependable, reliable, and has the best strategizing ideas.

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Thank you Mary Baca my co worker in the Birth Certificate office your Christian Faith. and mines help us to stay prayed up for our Covid moms that no one belived would make it through but GOD always has the last word AMEN!

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Because he was the one go to man for everything for everybody. Worked Seven days a week helping the administration to care for the safety and security for all patients, visitors and medical staff.

Thanks to all the Howard Oncology Infusion staff ,clinic staff, supportive services, and physicians!! You are a wonderful group! Every day you make a difference in someone's life!

Dr. Glade was a true Hero during the Covid pandemic. I saw him working tirelessly for eight weeks straight without taking a single day off. Most of us tried to avoid going into the rooms with patients that were known to be Covid positive but he went in every room, he spoke to every person and every family member, and came in contact with almost every patient who either died or survived the COVID virus at Touro. He helped develop the policies that were developed in a vacuum because we had no guidance as TOURO was one of the first hospitals in the country to be overwhelmed with patients. Other places learned from our experience in dealing with patients with Covid virus and we helped the rest of the country learn from our successes and our shortcomings. He not only was involved in patient care but also in policy development and staff education helping to decide how to protect our staff when they took care of COVID positive patients and develop treatment protocols to help patients in ICU. I have no doubt that through Dr Glade's efforts many lives were saved, Touro staff lives were protected, and the fund of knowledge that eventually will beat this virus was improved.

Keiota has been a mentor for many a nurse here at Touro, just by her demeanor and caring attitude. She is constantly on an even keel as it were. Her professionalism is a shining example for anyone who wishes to see a true nurse in action.

Beautiful personality, always willing to help

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Melissa Pennebaker is a true healthcare hero and a great representation of Touro's perseverance against COVID-19. Melissa is Touro's Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner and has a very difficult and important role. She talks to patients and their loved ones about their diagnoses and next steps in their care process, which can often be end of life planning. During the COVID pandemic Melissa's role took on new meaning. Melissa worked closely with all of our critically ill COVID patients and their families to explain a disease that we were all still working to understand. While so many media outlets reported patients dying alone in isolation, Melissa made sure that was never the case at Touro. She worked with hospital leaders to bring in ipads and additional smartphones so patients could communicate with their families. She knew the importance of patients and families seeing each other during those difficult times and coordinated safe family visits with appropriate PPE for families visiting patients that were at end of life. She worked around the clock meeting with patients and families, and having the difficult conversations that no one wants to have, but are so important for everyone involved. Not only was Melissa a vital resource to our patients, but she even took the time to celebrate and recognize the staff and her co-workers. Melissa brought in hand made cards her daughter and her classmates created to thank our healthcare heroes. She coordinated donations of food to support her fellow healthcare heroes, and was always praising the work of others, never considering herself a hero. The processes and level of care that was developed by Melissa during this difficult time has led to Touro setting the standards for Palliative Care for COVID patients. Her valued work during this pandemic has brought attention to the important role of palliative care, and led to the development of grief support resources and support groups for COVID families. Through this group, members of Touro's medical staff volunteered to call grieving loved ones to check on their wellbeing and offer support that is available to them. I nominate Melissa to represent the Touro Family in receiving the JTS award because she represents the extraordinary qualities that Touro employees are know for. The courage, compassion, and commitment to care that I witnessed in her during our darkest days, not only filled me with hope for our patients and community, but pride for being part of a hospital that truly cares for one another as family.

Allison is a relatively new Touro employee. She walked right into a firestorm when she came on as Employee Health RN back in the spring. Every day she calmly and professionally handles numerous employee issues and concerns related to Covid 19. Employee health RN's are always busy but adding a pandemic to the workload was likely not something she expected when she came onboard. Throughout this time she also has managed the regular aspects of her job, reviewing and clearing employees and interns, so that they can get started quickly. We recently saw her making rounds all over the hospital administering flu shots to all staff. She is a calm, clear communicator during a stressful time.

Thank you Brad for being such a great leader in the midst of COVID. Your calmness & compassion helped us do what we needed to do with a little less stress.

Thank you Dr. M. Maxwell, Dr. Leonard Glade and Dr. Chris Lege; To each of you and your staff, we are eternally grateful for your help and compassion! Cassandra Williams and Millye Beatty

THANK YOU DR. SIEGEL 💛

Throughout the Covid experience at Touro, Cheryl worked tirelessly - as she has for years - to care for moms and their babies as a special nurse in LDR. Cheryl has very special gifts of caring for new moms, especially new moms who experience the babies that are sick, or born too early to survive. Cheryl honors our very littlest patients, especially those little patients who are delicate and fragile. When babies are born too early, or too sick, to live long on this earth, Cheryl has a magnificent gift of helping families to make the most of the time that they have together, and helps parents to express their love and tenderness toward their babies. This is only one of the many ways that Cheryl shares her gifts with LDR and all of Touro. She is a magnificent team player, inviting other nurses, chaplains, doctors, techs, and everyone in the unit to care and express the very best Touro spirit with our patients. Cheryl's deep love for moms, babies, and their families is infectious in the LDR unit, and she inspires and supports her co-workers with grace and kindness. During Covid quarantine time, when some of our new moms had no family member allowed to be present, Cheryl represented the very best of humanity, and the very best of Touro, by loving and caring for those moms and their precious babies, serving as not only their competent nurse, but also as their loving family. Cheryl has many responsibilities in LDR, including showing expectant families throughout the LDR unit. Despite all of her many responsibilities, Cheryl adapted to the demands of the Covid quarantine and never stopped smiling, laughing, and creating a warm and inviting environment, despite the difficulties of those months. Cheryl Tschirn, who cares for Touro patients from birth through - sometimes - the end of life, with tremendous competence, love, and compassion, should represent the entire Touro family as the recipient of the 2020 Judah Touro Society Award.

Thanks to all the Howard Oncology Infusion staff ,clinic staff, supportive services, and physicians!! You are a wonderful group! Every day you make a difference in someone's life!