President’s Values in Action Awards Celebrate ‘Above and Beyond Employees’

Each year, the MUSC President’s Values in Action Awards provide the opportunity for employees across the organization to be recognized for outstanding service and significant contributions to the campus community, representing MUSC’s five core values, which fall under the categories of Compassion, Innovation, Integrity, Collaboration and Respect.

This year’s event was held at a special MUSC OurDay digital transformation and leadership training meeting at the MUSC Storm Eye Institute Auditorium on Nov. 7 in Charleston. President David Cole M.D., kicked off the supposed training, surprising participants when he later shifted to recognizing eight award honorees as their nominators and employee work teams gathered for the awards.

For seven years, the president and first lady Kathy Cole have presented the VIA Awards to honor MUSC employees from across the enterprise for their resilience, commitment and leadership. Awardees in the five categories each received award certificates and a memento and new to 2022, a $1,000 bonus. The Impact Award was also presented for the third consecutive year. Similar to the VIA Awards, the Impact Award winner is selected by the president if a nominee has proved to go above and beyond to create positive impact for MUSC, in addition to exemplifying all of the core values. This honoree receives an award certificate and memento, plus a $5,000 bonus in appreciation of his or her work across the enterprise.

“The awards pay tribute to outstanding people who personify, in some manner, all of our five core values — collaboration, compassion, respect, integrity and innovation. I’m incredibly pleased to say that since we started giving out these awards in 2015, there have been so many extraordinary examples and nominations. I want to acknowledge how difficult it is to make a choice in selecting the winners and think it’s appropriate to recognize all those who are nominated,” said Cole.

An honoree was chosen in each category, with the exception of three awardees in the category of Respect. Cole also announced that this year’s award winners, as well as previous VIA winners, will be invited to a special spring 2023 unveiling of a VIA exhibit, honoring all awardees, in addition to a dedication ceremony at the MUSC Charleston campus.

Compassion

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences’ Alyssa Rheingold, Ph.D., the 2021 VIA Impact Award winner, praised the work and efforts of colleague Tenelle Jones. Jones, who is a licensed marriage and family therapist and mental health clinician with the MUSC Resiliency Program, is known for her work with patients, health care team members and the Charleston community.

Jones came to MUSC in 2016 as a mental health clinician working to provide evidence–based trauma treatment to victims of crime who were not able to access traditional mental health counseling due to a lack of insurance or other barriers to services, through the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center.

Working with Rheingold in the MUSC Resiliency Program, she has provided traumatic grief therapy, supportive counseling and resiliency programming services as well as a positive attitude for struggling team members. In the last few years, she has developed and led half–day trainings for nursing leaders and other MUSC health care team members.

“Tenelle is one of the best mental health clinicians and well–being advocates that I have ever known,” said Rheingold. “She has exhibited the utmost highest level of professionalism, integrity and devotion to all those she interacts with. She embodies the true essence of compassion for some of the most underserved and marginalized populations that have experienced victimization and hate–based crimes to the significantly taxed and overwhelmed health care workforce over the past few years.”

Innovation Emma Vought, program director of digital marketing, Department of Business Development and Marketing Services, was recognized for her creative new ideas and leadership managing multiple system digital marketing projects for MUSC Health. She supervised the revamp of MUSC Health’s Find-A-Doctor app and guided the Mercury CRM implementation — helping MUSC Health to improve its relationships with patients and organizational needs using artificial intelligence and personalized messaging to patients while improving metrics tracking. Other projects she guided were the Monday.com integration and Hootsuite social media launch, and she led the launch of the MUSC Health TikTok channel.

Her manager, Kelly Perritt, Ph.D., executive director of marketing campaigns, Department of Business Development and Marketing Services, spoke highly of Vought. “Emma reflects MUSC values. She’s diligent, organized, collaborative, helpful and adopts a team approach to her work. I’m so proud she’s being recognized with the VIA Innovation Award.”

Integrity

Rene Cook was praised for the compassion she exhibits toward patients, their families and her co–workers and demonstrating MUSC’s values on a daily basis. With integrity, she has a reputation for being honest, and her moral principals are unquestionable as is seen in her day-to-day living. Cook is a coordinator of the Central Sterile Processing Department for the main OR at MUSC Health Florence Medical Center.

Her supervisor, Sharon Thrasher, has worked with Cook for 15 years and wrote her nomination for this year’s VIA Award. “Rene has respect for everyone she comes into contact with and her ability to listen patiently to people’s concerns or issues is a hallmark of who she is and what she brings to her job. Cook constantly works and collaborates with others around her or in other areas to find new creative ways to get work done or make improvements that follows best practices and recommended guidelines. Always striving for excellence, she’s always working with others to get best practices into service.

In addition to her work dedication, Cook has strived for personal excellence, earning advanced certifications in her areas as well as her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. She’s currently working on her master’s degree while also being a busy mom to two daughters.

Collaboration

Hollings Cancer Center’s Shanta Salzer has been a program manager with the Clinical Trials Office for 18-plus years. She is the manager of the Malignant Hematology and Pediatrics research staff and manages its trial studies. During this time, she has brought together physicians, clinical staff, study coordinators, patients and research sponsors to improve patient care and move forward clinical trial research at MUSC.