Meet the HoG Outreach Staff
The pharmacy customers receive a flyer with their orders. The flyers feature someone on our outreach staff each month. Get to know these wonderful people who serve the bleeding disorder community. This year, we featured Michelle Lowe, Gail Day, Karen Clark, and Ednita Douglas.
Michelle Lowe, BSN, Director of Nursing
We featured Michelle Lowe, Director of Nursing. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Georgia College, in Milledgeville. She has worked devotedly at HoG for eleven years. She enjoys working with children and began her career as a pediatric nurse. She loves nursing because she can make a difference in people’s lives.
Michelle was born in Connecticut and moved to Milledgeville when she was three years old. People don’t believe she was born a “Yankee,” because she speaks with a southern accent. Michelle has three sons, Shaun and Scott (twins), and Michael, five grandchildren, and four dogs. She has a very close family and enjoys spending time with them. She is an animal lover and struggles when she sees animals that need a loving home.
Michelle is a lung cancer survivor. She has never smoked, which is always a question people ask when they find out she had lung cancer. There was no family history when she was diagnosed. Since having surgery to remove part of her right lung, chemotherapy, and then part of her left lung, she can now say she is cancer free. After her journey with cancer, her father, who had also never been a smoker, was also diagnosed with lung cancer, only his was stage 4, and he lost his battle. “I guess it is normal to wonder, “why me?” but after my father was diagnosed, I knew. I feel that because of my journey with lung cancer, I could understand and help him with his battle. I was there by his side and could help him, as well as my family, understand
what the doctors were trying to explain to us each day. I am also now a patient advocate as part of a group working on a grant to do further research on this specific type of lung cancer.”
Gail Day, LCSW, Director of Social Work
We featured Gail Day, LCSW, Director of Social Work. She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Florida International University in Miami. She chose social work because she wanted to directly impact people. Twenty-five years later, she says she’s learned more about herself in this career field than anything else. As a social worker, you study human dynamics and you get to use it in your personal and professional life. Learning ways and strategies to deal with others has provided her with the tools to better navigate through life.
Gail is naturally curious and a lifelong learner. She grew up in Homestead,
Florida, which is just south of Miami. She loves learning about history and
different cultures, especially the food! Sunday is her favorite day because
she can curl up with a book or run up Stone Mountain, depending on the
weather. Her favorite inspirational quote is “hurt people hurt people.”
She wonders what the world would look like if we promoted kindness
instead of profit.
Karen Clark, RN, Outreach Nurse
We featured Karen Clark, RN, Outreach Nurse. She is also our February 2017 camp calendar nurse. (If you didn’t receive a HoG 2017 calendar, contact Michelle Turkington at mbturkington@hog.org.) Karen studied at Kennesaw State College and received her Associate Degree in Nursing. She has worked at Hemophilia of Georgia for almost 10 years. She has always had a desire to be a pediatric nurse. She wanted a career where she could help people. She loves life and people and wants to make someone smile each day and to show kindness everywhere she goes.
Her hometown is Rossville, Georgia, which is on the Georgia/Tennessee border. She is married to Roger Clark and they have three daughters (Kelsey, Kristin, and Kinsey) and four grandchildren (Cohen, Kaylin, Ryder, and Thatcher). Karen is involved in SOAR ministries. SOAR is a ministry in Honduras that supports the local community. She helped set up a medical clinic. Her SOAR team noticed children working alongside their parents in a garbage dump. They established a school for the children to attend as an alternative. Karen also is involved in Compassion International. She supports a young girl who lives in El Salvador, named Katherine. Karen’s favorite quote is, “Life is worthy of the calling you have received.” Karen was called to help people.
Ednita Douglas, LMSW, Outreach Social Worker
We are featuring Ednita Douglas, LMSW, Social Worker. Ednita is from Memphis, TN, and she studied Criminal Justice at Tennessee State University in Nashville. She earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and she’s currently pursuing her LCSW to become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She’s been at Hemophilia of Georgia for 10 months.
When asked how she chose her profession, Ednita said, “I didn’t choose it. It chose me. I had plans to attend law school and I took a job working at a juvenile correctional facility for girls. I discovered I wanted to help people discover their strengths and power within, regardless of their obstacles.”
When off duty, Ednita likes to bike, hike, shop, dance, listen to music, visit museums, and travel. She is a huge foodie and especially loves seafood and assorted Tootsie Roll Frooties. Her favorite quote is from Proverbs: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”