ANA\C The Nursing Voice Spring 2019

anacalifornia.org  .  5 four Nursing Students in Sacramento Internship (NSSI) winners, and hosted a marvelous General Assembly in Newport Beach. Not a bad year at all! Now, this organization is led and spearheaded by the vision and decision- making of the Board of Directors. While the executive director serves as a caretaker and administrator, it is the Board that directs it. It does not happen often that a new administrator gets to work with a new, bold, dynamic, innovative and cohesive Board of Directors. It was my utter honor and privilege to have worked with the 2017–2019 ANA\C Board of Directors and I would like to give my deep personal and professional thanks to each and every one of them. Their unwavering faith in me and my ability to administer and advance this organization will always stay with me. Last but certainly not least, I am thankful for You. Your membership, interest, expertise, time, and dedication to this marvelous organization is the foundation of my every day work and feeds my passion for nursing, policy, politics, advocacy and administration. We’d be nowhere without you as this is your organization! Having diligently re-structured, re-organized and re- established ourselves over the last almost four years, we are ready to lead, empower, educate, and advance the health and well-being of all Californians and the profession of nursing. Thank you all. I am proud to be your Executive Director. Executive Director Welcome This endeavor had been in the works for over a year and it has been a labor of love. We hope you will like the new digital version, its graphic design, and the content. We reached out to a variety of nursing and healthcare leaders in California to share with us their views on some ongoing issues. We are extremely pleased to have developed a collaboration with several notable public health nursing (PHN) leaders and that ANA\C was introduced to CA PHN Directors Executive Committee. Having said that, we are proud to introduce PHN Corner in this first issue and focus on the important work PHN RNs do. Next to our staple, the APRN Corner, we also established ADN Corner to give voice to our colleagues with associate degree in nursing. We also added Disaster Relief Corner because we have volunteers who help and assist people and communities during the most difficult if times. We will be alternating it with Global Health Corner where we want to bring you a global aspect of nursing. Speaking of global nursing, the World Health Organization’s executive committee declared 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife” and when we add the significance of the current public hearings on the ‘Future of Nursing 2020– 2030,’ 2020 is shaping up as a marvelous year to celebrate Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday! Back to our inaugural edition of The Nursing Voice, next to some of the above exciting additions, we are of course bringing you the 2017–2019 ANA\C Board of Directors final reports since we wanted to give them the opportunity to share with you their reflections serving on this board. As you know, ANA\C just held Elections for all board positions and we are pleased to welcome new and returning Officers and Directors. The May 2019’s Board hand-over and official Welcome to the inaugural digital edition of The Nursing Voice ! swearing-in of the 2019–2021 ANA\C Board of Director in Sacramento allow for networking, getting to know one another, and for sharing ‘lessons learned’. The added expertise of an outside governance and communication expert make for a wonderful mix of learning and teaching opportunities for our new and returning Board members. We are working on a variety of programs/events/community forums/task forces/collaboration projects as 2019–2020 is all about you, the ANA\C Nurse! For me personally, last year was both exciting and very challenging but I enjoyed every minute of it. Since no [wo]man is an island, I would like to give my thanks to those who worked hard and/ or selflessly volunteered their time and expertise to advance this organization during my first year as your executive director. Teresa Manquera at our office is an indispensable part of Team ANA\C. Without Teresa’s diligence, hard work, dedication and professionalism we would not be where we are today so next time when you call our office and hear her voice, tell her thank you. Roxanne Gould, ANA\C Contracted Lobbyist, is a fundamental asset to this organization and the longer I am in Sacramento the more I reflect on her immense value, integrity, loyalty and the consummate respect she commands in this town. Jennifer Schwartzel and Debra Mejia, our financial team, are integral to ANA\C’s fiscal responsibility, transparency, and overall fiduciary duty. They keep us on track with budget, financial reporting and tax filings. Brenda Brozek, now retired, served as our webmaster, and we are very glad to have had her expertise. Last year was defining for ANA\C; we transferred all financial services back to California, we reviewed, updated and established all policies, we had a working budget prepared by the Treasurer and discussed and voted on by the Board, we organized another successful RN Day, welcomed Marketa Houskova MAIA, BA, RN—Executive Director ANA\C Contact Marketa— ED@anacalifornia.org (916) 346-4590 Executive Director