Emily Bertsch’s path to her career as a Family Nurse Practitioner is a convoluted one but is a journey that always had a central theme at its core: caring for others. Emily works alongside Dr. Donna Walker at Lompoc Valley Medical Center: Hematology-Oncology, helping treat more than 1,000 patients with varying forms of cancer.
Lompoc Valley Medical Center (LVMC) Dietary Technician Michelle Romero has held jobs in the food service industry for years, including stints at Yogurt Creations in Lompoc and El Rancho Market.
Years ago, Gina Devris took one of those ubiquitous personality/career tests about finding the best profession to suit her personality.
The results came back: doctor, psychiatrist or occupational therapist.
Something clicked for Nancy Sparkman in her second year of working as a registered nurse. At the end of her nursing school at Santa Barbara City College, she realized thatshe had made a good choice for her future. “This is exactly where I’m supposed to be,” she remembers thinking.
For the past 20 years, Eric Lykens has been on what he calls a “wonderful ride.” As an Information Systems department Senior Systems Analyst, Eric has watched the hospital’s computer capability grow from just a handful of computer servers to more than 100 physical and virtual servers and systems that have grown exponentially since he first arrived from his previous job at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Pondering her future professional path, Julie Chudak at first thought she’d find a living in computer programming, then architecture and interior design. But eventually, as childhood dreams gave way to adulthood, the native of Manitoba, Canada lit upon a career that suits her perfectly. “I decided I wanted to keep people healthy, giving them the life they wanted, not the life they ended up with,” explains Julie, LVMC’s Director of Nutrition Services.
As the Registered Dietician at the Comprehensive Care Center, Kaitlyn LeBrun has the enviable job of telling some residents they can eat all the ice cream they want. On staff at the skilled nursing and post-acute rehabilitation facility, Kaitlyn is responsible for creating nutrition assessments, managing weight gain and loss, checking on meal preferences and helping the elderly residents and their families determine the best nutritional path for the individual residents.
A native of Delaware, Kristy Wayson initially planned to have a career as an interior designer. But it turned out all the places she lived with her husband didn’t have schools offering that specialty. While earning a bachelor’s degree in social psychology at Park University in Missouri, she started taking science courses and found she had a knack for it.
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