Joy has been a pediatric nurse since 1984.  After working on an inpatient pediatric unit for 10 years she spent 25 years in pediatric emergency rooms which included at the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital. She has earned certifications as a nurse specialized in pediatrics and as a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse. 

 

     When her last child graduated from high school she prayed for God to give her a passion for something like the one that she had loved for parenting. The pediatric emergency room was seeing greater and greater numbers of children who came in because of child physical and/or sexual abuse which weighed very heavy on her heart and exposed a great need for someone to provide specialized care to these children way beyond their initial visit to the ER.  Through the past 10 years she also had multiple personal relationships with adult survivors of child sexual abuse. The significant short and long term impact on each person emotionally and mentally became clear and again I knew this growing population in our society deserved so much more than what many had received.  Upon learning about the BRCAC and the services that they provide Joy quickly became passionate about helping the CAC in any way that she could and she knew this was the new passion that God had placed in her life. Joy has been actively involved with the annual Celebrity Waiter event for 8 years and would like to become involved in community outreach awareness and education.