Staff Spotlight: Director of Health and Wellness, Stacy Dorian, R.N.

Position: Director of Health and Wellness

Favorite Camp Meal: Anything with protein

Favorite Physical Activity at camp: Kayaking on the lake

For Stacy Dorian, the status quo has never been good enough. As the Camp Tawonga Director of Health and Wellness, Stacy has been an irreplaceable member of the Camp Tawonga staff. Her hard work and dedication to the safety, health, and the well-being of each and every camper is instrumental to the success of our campers and staff.

“My mission is to make the Tawonga Health Center the standard for the industry — one that people can look to in order to determine questions such as, how do you get your center to function? How do you provide for wellness and safety? I’m very proud to say that we are getting there,” Stacy said.

Ever since Stacy began working with us in 2013, she has been working to continually improve the Health Center.

“When I started working for Tawonga, I had the goal of setting things up to make the Health Center run like clockwork… I wanted to set it up to be an urgent care rural emergency room where my staff and I can handle anything,” Stacy shared. “My staff can respond at a moment’s notice in any event. But beyond that, I want to promote wellness at camp.”

Stacy has never been one to be satisfied with complacency.  Beginning her career as an emergency room EMT, Stacy went on to work for Foothills Fire and Rescue in Colorado first as an EMT, then as a firefighter and swift water rescuer, and she retired as the Captain of the fire department. She has since become a nurse and upgraded her EMT in February to a Wilderness EMT certification. Always looking for ways to improve and challenge herself, she plans to continue her education and become a Nurse Practitioner.

“I’d like to get my nurse practitioner so that I can serve the Tawonga community to the best of my ability. Tawonga was a catalyst for change in my own life. It has altered my life for the better making me a better person and teaching me how to live fully for the first time in my life,” Stacy said.

Stacy is also an incredible teacher. In her three years here, Stacy has served as a mentor to several teams of staff members. Along with emergency medicine, she is passionate about teaching and watching her staff members grow professionally.

“I believe in empowering my staff to provide empathetic care and to work on mindfulness in order to really be there for the patients. I want to train my staff and impart knowledge to help guide them hopefully into a career in the medical field. That’s my mission,” Stacy said.

One project Stacy took on was rewriting all the protocols for the workings of the Health Center. She has upgraded the previous Health Center protocol with a new 35-page one. Additionally, she upgraded our wilderness protocols to accurately reflect what occurs in the field and to reflect what is taught in the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Wilderness First Responder (WFR) courses.

“I want the Tawonga Health Center to be the standard in the industry on how to run a center at camps. I rewrote the wilderness protocols and integrated them more with the health center protocols so that it’s sort of seamless,” Stacy said. “The new protocol really makes things run a lot smoother.”

During the winter of 2013-14, Stacy rewrote the protocols based on current research and revised the documents this year for the the spring and summer seasons. The document is a work in process that we are always updating to meet the needs of the camp population.

“I’m always getting input, things are always changing in the field and in emergency medicine,” Stacy added. “Throughout the year I go to several classes, conferences, and seminars which have really helped me apply the cutting edge policies to our protocol at camp.”

Beyond her professional work at Tawonga, Stacy shares that she has truly found her place in the Tawonga community.

“I’ve come back to my Judaism here at camp. I’m the healthiest I can be spiritually, emotionally, and physically — this is a wonderful place for my daughter to embrace her Judaism,” Stacy shared. “To me, it’s all about taking what you need and leaving the rest. I have always felt so welcome and embraced from the moment my daughter and I started coming here. I’m so impressed by the men and women here, and I hope my daughter will grow up to be one of them.”

There aren’t enough words to thank Stacy for all that she has done for the Tawonga community.

Staff Spotlight is a weekly series on The Pipeline blog featuring staff members from a broad range of departments here at Camp Tawonga. Tune in every week to learn more. 

Below enjoy photos from the Banquet dinner and the Closing Campfire!