Valerie Gilbert, a reading room assistant in Radiology, will be retiring on January 6. She’s been a part of the Cincinnati Children’s family for many years, and she’ll be missed greatly!
Valerie worked at Good Samaritan Hospital right after graduating from college. She then came to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1976. Throughout her working years, she was also a cardiology technologist and learned how to do EKG’s and stress tests. She became a certified phlebotomist, a medical assistant, and worked in orthopedics, learning how to cast patients. She has worked in hospitals and private practice, all the while raising an amazing son and serving her community. Her husband and the love of her life passed away in 2000, and although it broke her heart, it did not break her giving spirit.
Image: Nigeria in dark green.
Image: Tanzania in red.
In 2008, Valerie found another passion during her first mission trip to Nigeria, Africa. She enjoyed helping the people there so much that she has been on four more mission trips since. Her next trip was to Tanzania, Africa in 2010 and in 2012, she went to Honduras. In 2015, she went to Beirut, Lebanon and in June 2016 she went to Ecuador. With all of her working and life experiences, she was able to serve as a triage nurse and medical assistant to the doctors on these mission trips. Valerie was able to share her faith and skills with people who would otherwise never experience a helping hand and basic medical care.
Image: Beirut, Lebanon
After being away from Cincinnati Children’s for a few years and working in management elsewhere, Valerie helped start the Urgent Care in Mason before finding her way back to Children’s. She became a reading room assistant in 2012 and has been here ever since.
We have had the immense pleasure of working with this amazing woman. She is kind, thoughtful, smart, driven, and extremely caring. She said she feels like she’s come full circle. We were her first radiology family, and she is finishing up her amazing career here, with us.
Photo: Valerie (middle) with two of her former co-workers.
I asked Valerie what she planned to do after she retires, and she said she’s going back to Ecuador. I know I speak for us all when I say how much we will miss her and wish her nothing but the best. Hopefully she comes back with pictures and shares her adventures with those of us who can’t retire just yet.
