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BWH’s Rachel Hall and Melissa Joseph are two of six Partners employees named Black Achievers this year.
Melissa Joseph, RN, assistant nurse manager of diversity, and Rachel Hall, project manager for the Connors Center for Women and Newborns, have extensive backgrounds in volunteer work and an impressive list of accomplishments to their credit at BWH. They set an admirable example with their dedication to serving the community around them, according to their colleagues and supervisors. That's why Joseph and Hall were two of six Partners' employees selected this month as Black Achievers for the birthday of 2006. The awards were announced at last week's annual celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. "Recipients of this prestigious award have demonstrated a history of professional achievement and the potential for future development, and have agreed to commit at least 40 hours of community service to benefit area minority youth," said Robin Vann Ricca, director of Organizational Development, Training and Diversity Management.
Rachel Hall Hall, who graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor's degree in international relations, focuses her efforts in the Connors Center on improving customer service for the hundreds of women who use the center's services each year. She is involved with the Domestic Violence Steering Committee and Voices in Action, a monthly educational event for Connors Center staff. Before becoming project manager in 2002, she worked for two years on a temporary assignment at BWH. Hall began volunteering in the 10th grade when she worked with truant teenage boys in Harlem. Locally, she has volunteered with the Anna Bissonette House for the Elderly, the Bottom Line Project, Share Our Strength, Y-KNOT, Rosie's Place and Horizon House. Hall intends to use her 40 hours of community service to work with homeless families in the Boston YMCA's Families in Transitions Program.
Melissa Joseph As assistant nurse manager of diversity, Joseph directs BWH's outreach to community nursing schools and recruits and mentors 10 nursing students during the summer. She arrived at BWH in 2002 while working as a traveling nurse. She decided to stay permanently at BWH, and accepted a full time nursing position in 2003. Joseph, who is studying for her master's degree in nursing leadership, began volunteering while in her native Florida. Over six years, she conducted countless health education workshops for lower income families who belonged to her church. Since arriving in Boston, Joseph participated in forums on racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Also, she has been a dedicated "Promising Pen Pal" to a student at the James P. Timilty Middle School for four years. She will dedicate her 40 hours of community service to the Young Achiever's Summer Institution, where she will tutor and mentor children ages 10 to 17.