What is your job title/your role at Scottish Rite?
I am a certified occupational therapy assistant (COTA) and a durable medical equipment (DME) coordinator. I coordinate families with specific medical equipment vendors to receive the appropriate preoperative or postoperative equipment for home use – such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, walkers and bathing or toileting equipment. With that, I built professional relations with the vendors across Texas, as well as nationwide.
During my first 19 years at Scottish Rite, I worked in the Occupational Therapy department. I would modify patient’s custom wheelchairs after a surgery, repair a broken or misaligned part and design a part for the wheelchair that was needed. I also helped with therapeutic exercises and worked with musculoskeletal engineers to assist in designing certain medical devices.
What is the most fulfilling part of your job?
Being here for 25 years, I get to see a lot of my patients grow up. Many now have their own families! They transform from patients to being simply friends. I can build lasting relationships with families by assisting them when they need it only once, because I had the resources to help them.
What makes Scottish Rite a special place to you?
Our mission is very special, and you cannot get this experience anywhere else. I’m part of a team where everyone shares the same goal, and each of us are a puzzle piece that strives to complete the whole picture.
I’m also a Scottish Rite Freemason, so Scottish Rite has always been part of my heart and the “Pearl of Texas”.
What made you choose a career in health care?
I got my first degree in welding technologies/structural design and metallurgy. I worked under government and military contracts, and most of these contracts were temporary. Every six to 18 months, I was working for a different company.
Thirty years ago, I happened to marry a physical therapist. She was the one who steered me into the OT side of the therapy world because of my background in equipment design. By then, I grew tired of the temporary assignments and contracts, so I took a job with Team Care Rehab as a rehab technician. At this time, I also worked in a sports medicine clinic and a work-hardening facility for other experiences.
I decided to apply to the brand-new COTA program at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas. I was in the second class for this program, and my head instructor was the president of the Texas Occupational Therapy Association at the time. During my last internship in Mexia State School, I was appointed to the Texas Board of Occupational Therapy as a COTA student representative for one year. My ultimate goal was to become a therapist that specialized in equipment design and fabrication. So, the health care field just fell into my lap.
What is something unique you get to do in your position?
I enjoy being the only one that does what I do at Scottish Rite. I get to collaborate with many from other departments, such as social workers, clinic nurses, interpreters, physicians, orthopedics coordinators, among others.
What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
A lot! I like to attend masonic charity events, air shows, renaissance fairs, Scottish and pirate festivals and Celtic concerts at pubs. I enjoy teaching martial arts and weaponry, as well as designing decks and collecting swords and blades.
I’m also one of the coordinators of the North Texas Irish Festival. These are just a few of the things!
Do you have any hidden talents?
Not much is hidden since I put them out there. I’m a drummer/percussionist and have been in three bands – two went on to get CDs and cassettes made with our songs on them. I have acted for TV, PSAs, internet media and films. I also have a side business of taking vintage and themed photography, which was my minor in college!
When I was in welding college, journalist Bob Phillips had me design and make his Channel 8 program branding iron that he would open the “Texas Country Reporter” show with.
Where are you from and what brought you to DFW?
I was born in Gainesville, Florida (go Gators)! My dad was recruited to be the mechanical and electrical engineer at Lennox Industries Headquarters, so we moved to Fort Worth when I was little.
If you could travel to anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
I’ve been to many places and loved “most” of them, like the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. Next year, I plan on going to Holland and Norway to sail the Fjords and experience the places of my Viking ancestors.
If you had to pick one meal to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Steak and sushi, because it’s the best of turf and the best of the surf.
What movie do you think everyone should watch at least once?
“Braveheart”
What was the first concert you attended?
As a teenager and not with my parents, it was Heart and Santana together. As a kid and with my parents, I got to see all the country music legends.
Favorite DFW hidden gem?
Unfortunately, they no longer exist – the original Tipperary Inn Pub, Trinity Hall Pub, The Emerald Mist and the Celtic Quill.
If you were to have a movie based on your life, which actress/actor would you choose to play your character?
The current Keanu Reeves, not him from “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”.
What is some advice you would give your younger self OR what’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
What I’ve always said and is my creed is to do everything you can before you can’t and experience everything you can before you can’t afford it.
