Grace has been a nurse since 1977, starting her career as an LPN, advancing to an RN, and then obtaining her bachelor's degree. She was originally employed by Ephrata Hospital Health System, which later became WellSpan Health. Grace just celebrated and was recognized for 45 years of service.

She has spent the majority of her time, 30 years, in Diabetes Education where she started the program in Ephrata and has grown to a recognized ADA (American Diabetes Association) Diabetes Education program serving the Ephrata and surrounding communities teaching Diabetes Education in both individual and group setting following the ADA content for Diabetes Education.  Grace is the Quality Coordinator for the Ephrata program, which means the Diabetes Education Class series offered must adhere to the ADA criteria, as well as collecting patient outcome data, managing annual Quality Improvement Projects for the ADA program, and consistently working with the Ephrata team to maintain current educational content. This work helps to maintain the program's accreditation.

Grace recently compiled 15 years' worth of manually collected (pre-electronic health record and ADA data is currently a manual collection process) patient outcome data on HgA1C levels pre and post of patients who attended the Diabetes Education Class Series "Taking Charge of Your Diabetes" Program. The average pre A1C being 8.23 and average post A1C being 6.97. Data collection was years 2009-2023. She recently presented the program's outcomes to the East Region Medical Group monthly meeting.

Grace is very well known with our East Region PCP providers where the majority of all the referrals come from to the program. The team also educates Gestational Diabetic patients, providing diabetes education supporting healthy pregnancies. Grace mentors new team members and provides guidance to colleagues in relation to the ADA Quality Coordinator reporting process (including myself!!).

Grace participates in our regional service line Diabetes Educator Team lead meetings where she collaborates with our other Diabetes Education Team Leads to promote overall program improvements and help keep education materials up to date and relevant, as well as supporting our next ideas and advancements. She is extremely knowledgeable with the ADA content and the process on becoming a certified diabetes educator which supports her teammates and the overall program with advanced knowledge.

Grace also volunteers her time at least 2-3 times a year, traveling with medical mission trip teams to locations such as Kenya, and recently completed a mission trip to Mexico. Grace has a passion for her job in helping and educating people with diabetes, and she truly loves seeing the progress of A1Cs come down, increase control over blood sugars, and improve the quality of life for her patients. She is also qualified to provide diabetes education to our community of Medical Technicians employed by over fifty of the East region's skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities helping to support proper education to those who care for that patient population (part of services offered by Ephrata team).

In her free time, she enjoys her family, her faith, traveling, walking, biking, gardening, and sewing. Grace is a joy to work with and is truly a caring individual both on and off the job. Grace has dedicated her life's work to helping and caring for all patients in the workplace, in her community, and in her mission work.

She has made a difference in the lives of people with diabetes, and she and the Ephrata team have achieved positive patient outcomes in the care of people with diabetes. Thank you for the consideration!!