www.ohca.com FALL/WINTER 2023 The Oregon Caregiver 9 FEATURE Tara Pray stands with her team at the Oregon Veterans’ Home. Tara Pray is the administrator at the Oregon Veterans’ Home in The Dalles and is OHCA 2023 Administrator of the Year in skilled nursing. Pray’s approach is characterized by her lack of ego and a focus on hiring people she says are smarter than herself. She says she believes that the diversity of skills and knowledge within her team enhances the overall success of the organization. Like Silva, Pray hopes for more female leaders in long term care and believes that this trend is gradually shifting, with more women taking on leadership roles. However, she acknowledges that women still face unique challenges in balancing their careers with family life. She is determined to create an environment where women can excel in leadership without sacrificing their personal lives. “I tell my female staff, ‘You can do it all. Don’t be intimidated by feeling like you have to make the sacrifices that previous generations have had in order to have a thriving career. You can have both and you don’t have to miss out on either,’” said Pray. “There was a time where I thought I wanted to have another baby, but I was also getting ready to receive this promotion. I didn’t know which to pick, but my mentor said, ‘we’re going to pick both.’ I had the baby, and I took the promotion, and we made it work.” Like Pray, Brenda Connelly’s path to leadership was shaped by her experiences and determination. Connelly also started her career in long term care as a teenager. She had been exposed to healthcare from a very early age. Her family consisted of nurses, including her mom, aunts, and many extended relatives. By the second grade, Connelly was pushing wheelchairs in the local nursing home while her mom worked, and she got very comfortable being around older adults, viewing them as her extended grandparents. With aspirations to follow in her mother’s footsteps and pursue a career in nursing, it was only natural for her to begin working at a nursing home at the age of 16. Initially, she started as a water girl, distributing refreshments and snacks, but her dedication and commitment led to a promotion to CNA, the first steppingstone in her career. She continued her education and became a charge nurse at a large nursing facility in Fargo, North Dakota. By the time she was 23 years old, she earned positions in infection control and quality and then as director of nursing. “I’ve always been able to reflect on my prior position or other positions that CONTINUES » preceded that, to really understand what it means to walk a mile in that person’s shoes and how important their role is, and how we truly can’t achieve success in terms of quality of services and care if we don’t listen to those most important people on the front lines,” said Connelly. “There is no one department that’s more important than another.” After spending 12 years working in a skilled nursing setting, she began working on the community-based care side as an executive director with The Springs Living in Whitefish, Montana. As she continued her journey, she became increasingly fascinated by the collaborative and essential aspects of achieving high quality in community performance and service outcomes. She wanted to understand how different departments worked together for the betterment of residents. This curiosity led her to delve deeper into the operational side of healthcare, exploring the
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