While Laura has had significant impact in all four areas listed above, I would like to highlight her dedication to exceptional team work/collaboration/customer service orientation, as well as excellent formal or informal leadership.
Over the last 2 ½ years, Laura has built a highly motivated, engaged and productive team for the Learning Health Informatics Program. Not only has she helped recruit stellar team members, she also is very focused on helping them succeed. She really supports the team and its individual members – nothing is too small or too large for her to contribute to or offer her help. One junior team member said: “Laura is like a light house – she guides us. Even when I was new to the team, I never felt super-lost. Laura always knows what to do and what to say!”
Laura is also continually thinking about how to keep our larger team of staff, faculty and collaborators connected and functioning well. Two business days after Regenstrief recommended working from home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura began sending the first of her daily “Checking in” message to our team to help us keep in touch. As of this writing, on Day 3 of Week 41, Laura has sent an unbroken string of messages that cheered us up, made us laugh and kept us connected. We have shared childhood memories, swapped recipes, played games, exchanged furniture, organized online happy hours and grown together because of Laura’s initiative. Ironically, because of Laura, we now know each other better as individuals and colleagues than if COVID-19 had never happened. The daily check-in is a great example of Laura’s can-do attitude in the face of adversity.
When I told my co-workers that I was planning to nominate Laura for the One Regenstrief Award, the reactions ranged from “What a great idea!” to “I was thinking about doing the same thing!” Laura’s knowledge, motivation, dedication and team spirit make her a significant asset to the Learning Health Informatics Program and the Institute!
