At this year’s Leadership Conference, Mission held an awards dinner to recognize our employee’s accomplishments from the previous year. One of the award categories was the CARES award, where the winners were voted in by team members who felt they embodied our CARES values, which are Character, Attitude, Respect, Excellence, and Service. One of the winners of this year’s CARES awards was Joanna Hendren, Gallaway Health & Rehab’s Social Services Director! To recognize her accomplishment, we got the chance to spotlight Joanna as she shares her (Mission) experience on being chosen as a CARES award winner.
    
Q: Who were you most excited to tell about winning this award and why?
A: I was most excited to tell my dad because I knew he would say something that would make me laugh and cry at the same time. I called him and told him I won an award at work and he responded with, “An award! What kind of award? I need an award too for raising you!” I then explained what CARES stood for and I could tell in his voice he was crying tears of joy as he said, “I couldn’t be more proud of you! They sure did choose the right one. You turned out just like your mother.” 
 
 Q: Which of our CARES Values of Character, Attitude, Respect, Excellence, and Service is your favorite and why? 
A: It is hard to narrow it down because they are all so meaningful to me.  Personally, I value character and strive for excellence. Character is important to me because it defines who you are as a person. Character is molded from your beliefs, values and choices you make in life. Some choices may be bad ones that we learn from or good ones that push us to stay on the right track. Excellence – People are not perfect. We all make mistakes in life. I have more respect for people who own up to their mistakes and put together a plan to correct it than those who try to cover them up. It always catches up to them when the truth is uncovered. I have always been a fan of asking a lot of questions because I am a detailed thinker. To me, a question says “I care” or “I want to know what the expectations are and need more information.” 
 
Shoutout time: give a shoutout to someone else on your team….spread the love!
I would like to give a shout out to:
My role model who influences me to go the extra mile, Susan Pittman; Gallaway’s new fearless leader, Stephanie Seay; The person who I can depend on – she always has my back, Kamyra Simon; The person who makes work fun and makes me laugh/smile all day, Kathy Smith. 
 
Q: What is the most challenging part of your job, and how do you overcome that?
A: The most challenging thing is trying to juggle too many things at once. I overcome it by praying and asking God for guidance, taking a few minutes to visit with a resident or asking a coworker for help.  If my coworkers are not able to help me, I make a list and number everything from most important to least important and dive in! 
 
Q: How does working at Mission/your community enable you to do your best work?
A: I love learning new things and Gallaway Health and Rehab has given me so many opportunities to do so by allowing me cross training in other departments (Social Services, Admissions/Marketing, HR/Payroll and Activities). When a coworker is out on vacation or FMLA I am always happy to help out. Mission Health has recognized my talents and given me opportunities to use them in ways that benefit other buildings by helping train new Social Workers, design floor plans for other buildings, provide assistance in abaqis, and audit social services assessments/care plans. Mission Health has given me confidence where I was lacking  it; believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself; supported me when I was the only one with enough courage to come forward; motivated me to achieve more and advance my career. I plan to begin the AIT program through Mission Health after my husband returns from deployment.  I would like to express my sincere gratitude for selecting me as one of the recipients of the CARES award.