Susan Good is a retired nurse who spent most of her career and the beginning of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic working in Tacoma, Washington.She spoke with KBIA’s Missouri on Mic team at the Columbia Bicentennial event back on July 4th about what nursing during the pandemic in Washington state was like, and a little bit about why she’s chosen to retire to Columbia, Missouri.

Kennedi Barker is a public health nurse for Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services. We spoke a few weeks ago during a mobile outreach vaccine clinic that she was working about how the more than 17 months of the pandemic – and working with Columbians from all walks of life – has impacted her.

Jeanee’ Kennedy is the Chief Nursing Officer for Freeman Health Systems in Joplin. For several weeks now, Joplin has had the worst COVID-19 hospitalization rates in the county. In fact, Jeanee’ said their hospital recently had to open a third COVID unit to accommodate all of their patients.She spoke about what she’s seeing in her community and about how this current surge is taking a toll on nurses and other frontline health workers.

Jeremy Drinkwitz is the President of the Mercy Hospital in Joplin. Joplin currently has the worst rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the county and three of the surrounding counties it serves are also in the top 10.

Trina Teacutter is the nursing supervisor for Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services. She spoke about how they have changed their tactics when it comes to vaccinations, and how “coming to people where they are” – though community-based vaccination clinics – is allowing them to reach more members of the community.

Amanda Hedgpeth is the vice president of hospital operations for the CoxHealth Hospital System based in Springfield, as well as their assistant commander for COVID-19 response.

Steve Hollis and Darren Morton work closely together combating the issue of homelessness in Columbia. Hollis is the Human Services Manager of Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, and Morton is the Director of Turning Point, an organization that works with people experiencing homelessness.They spoke about breaking the stigmas surrounding unhoused people, and about how important it is for the entire community to understand how difficult it can be to “pull yourself up” when there are no more bootstraps.

Andrew Pham and Alice Yu are both members of the Mizzou Asian American Association.They spoke about the challenges of rallying a historically disconnected Asian American community in the aftermath of recent hate crimes – and about how their generation might be the ones to overcome those challenges.

Dorreen Rardin and Jackie Reed in Columbia are both long-time nurses who spent their careers working in palliative end-of-life care. After they retired, they joined together to co-found Caring Hearts and Hands of Columbia, a social model home for the dying – basically a community-supposed home for terminally ill people.They spoke about what needs to be done to improve the end of folks’ lives and about what the community could do to help as they work toward creating a social model home.