Board of Directors

  • Wanda Ellithorpe Fletcher was an innovator and leader in occupational health.

    But for me, she had played a much more significant role in my life that still impacts me personally and professionally to the present day.

    First, we were married for 20 years and raised two wonderful children.

    Second, in 1989, we co-founded Midwest Occupational Health Associates (MOHA), a private occupational health practice in Decatur, Illinois. I left the security of being employed at a hospital-based occupational health program to take a considerable risk and open up my own shop. Without Wanda, it would have never happened.

    Though we had never owned a business, we devised a business plan to create a pathway to success. She executed that business plan and wore many hats, including running operations and serving as a registered nurse for the clinic. After three years in business, MOHA served more than 300 employers in Central Illinois. Even though we divorced in 1998, we continued to work together. She remained in her leadership role and continued to grow the practice. When Wanda left 2005 Illinois to return to her native California, the business had grown to 40 employees in three locations. She was well respected by client companies and known as a valuable mentor who was a creative problem solver. Without her being my co-partner for 17 years, I doubt I would still be in private independent practice today. When she left in 2005, there was a vast void for SafeWorks, which took a long time to overcome.

    Wanda’s tragic death from a fatal car crash was right after the Phoenix NAOHP conference in September 2019. She would have attended the conference. Still, she had to present in Chicago for the birth of our grandson Malcolm, who was born just ten days before her death. My final communication with her was about how she was missing a great conference.

    It was out of my grief and that close connection to NAOHP around the time she was killed that I began to plan to honor her life and legacy. I wanted to focus my grief positively by working to establish a special award that NAOHP would sponsor to highlight her cutting-edge leadership in the field of occupational health nursing.

  • I had the great privilege of knowing Wanda in both a personal, professional, and mentor capacity. As my aunt and part of my close family, she watched me grow up and when she moved to California I got to know her through the eyes of an adult.

    Wanda helped guide me and give me the confidence to pursue my goal of becoming a public health nurse. As part of the ritual of becoming a registered nurse, the student nurse is pinned by a registered nurse to welcome them into the profession and community. While others had teachers or preceptors pin them, I was lucky enough to have my aunt, Wanda, pin me at my ceremony.

    There is a lineage that is established through this practice, and while it might not happen the same way for others, for me I carry and inherit Wanda’s nursing style and practice forward.

    I was lucky enough to be able to work with her as a colleague, a peer, and a partner. We were able to establish innovative practices through our local government and private sector partnerships. She was able to provide guidance and direction on how to navigate the politics of practicing nursing outside of a hospital in a field that most nurses don’t go into much less know about. To that end, she would validate and champion my role as a public health nurse, which pre-pandemic was not a position that held esteem in the public or nursing communities. Wanda drew parallels to her experience in occupational health nursing and how to function autonomously without the structure and boundaries of a typical clinic setting.

    Losing her a few months before the start of the pandemic response made the response all that more difficult. Because we worked in the same region, and parts of the response overlapped our two agencies, I lost the person closest to me who would have understood the lived experience of responding to the pandemic. The loss wasn’t just mine but her agency and our community as well. Countless times I went to text or call her to work through a tricky problem related to statute or scope or jurisdiction, or even just needing to debrief and a safe space.

    My hope is that through WEF we are able to create a legacy of nurses who demonstrate those qualities of Wanda as a nurse and a person, so that those qualities, that essence continues to be carried forward and amplify the good that Wanda did, as well as didn’t have the chance to do. That this provides a true legacy of nurses and champions who share those same values and help to make the world a little bit better in their own way, just as Wanda did

  • Wanda Ellithorpe-Fletcher is my Mom and the love of my life. My Mom was an inspirational nurse, manager, working Mom, and human. She was not born into privilege and worked hard for every opportunity. At 16, she moved out of her parents' abusive home to live with her sister (Virginia), earned her medical assistant certificate, and began working in a nursing home. A few years later, while working, she returned to school (at a local community college) and earned an associate degree. A few years later, she jointly opened Midwest Occupational Health Associates (known as "MOHA"), an occupational health clinic in Central, Illinois. While running a clinic and raising two children under five, she earned her bachelor's in science and nursing from the University of Illinois. Her journey demonstrates her grit and perseverance, making her a more empathetic leader who mentored and invested in all kinds of people, not only those with a straightforward journey. I hope this award recognizes all nurse leaders who make an impact, regardless of their path.

    She was also one of the kindest and most generous people I've ever known. She encouraged the businesses she worked at to engage in philanthropic endeavors for the community and to build community within the workplace. She also went above and beyond to support her employees and patients, including buying medicine out of her pocket and assisting in changing bandages at all hours of the day and night (despite my protests).

    For about a year, we both worked remotely and shared an office. Watching my Mom communicate with and manage her team was a course in daring leadership. As a nursing leader, she managed patients, doctors, nurses, medical staff, and executive leadership. She treated everyone with respect. She was kind, clear, and firm at the same time and always looking for a "win-win." Now, I'm a working mom, and I think about what she would advise me to do professionally and personally multiple times a day

  • Wanda Ellithorpe Fletcher is my sister, best friend, and closest confidant. Wanda never wanted to be anything else other than a nurse. Her caring heart and desire to help others propelled her into this profession or, more appropriately, calling.

    Wanda initially did not see herself as the occupational health nurse leader that she was to become. She saw herself working in critical care for patients with head and spinal cord injuries. The doctors and nurses she worked with and the patients she cared for held Wanda in the highest regard and truly adored her.

    As a co-owner of an occupational health clinic, she was able to magnify her impact. Without formal business training, she designed multiple locations for the clinic, employing state-of-the-art equipment and technology and creating the optimal environment for patient care. She secured contracts with government agencies and businesses to serve their occupational health needs and managed the clinic's finances. She hired a talented team of staff.

    When she was ready to leave the clinic, she came to California to work for Campbell’s Soup. At Campbell’s Soup, she was not only in a leadership role as the medical director, but she provided care to employees, which she found rewarding.

    Her last job was at Northbay Medical Center, where she could utilize the knowledge she had learned over three decades to manage multiple departments. Without an MBA or other business degree, she significantly improved the bottom line without sacrificing the quality of patient or employee care.

    Wanda was brilliant and had multiple degrees and certificates, but she also taught herself what she needed to know to be successful in her work. She did not need to be taught how to be a leader; it was in her DNA.

    While the journey of the recipients of the Wanda Ellithorpe Fletcher Occupational Health Nurse Leadership Award will be different from Wanda’s journey, what they will have in common with Wanda is a combination of business savvy with caring, leadership with humbleness, high expectations with commensurate support of employees, persistence with patience—all driven by an insatiable passion for the field of nursing.

  • Jeff is Wanda Fletcher’s son, commonly called “her baby.” Jeff misses her every day. He keeps her memory alive by sharing stories about her with his children (her grandbabies) and grilling.