Sal’s Star of the Week: Kathy van der Vis and Rita Mann
(Introduced by Tim Dyck)
This week’s Sal’s star goes to both Kathy van der Vis, our Administrative Assistant for Cardiac Sciences, as well as Rita Mann, Administrative Secretary for Cardiac Sciences.
Kathy has been with the Cardiac Sciences Program since 1989, a career spanning 33 years.
Kathy’s level of commitment and focus is unprecedented. Not only has Kathy been doing the job of close to 2.0 EFTS for a number of years, she does this with expertise and proficiency. Some examples of Kathy’s level of commitment include the fact that she arrives an hour early on her own time just to ensure she gets all her work completed. If there are meetings or evening commitments that need to be attended to, Kathy will ensure she is available regardless of whether she is on vacation or not. It is not uncommon for Kathy to bring work that requires concentration to her lake, just so she can focus and ensure accuracy of the finished product. I recall recently being struck by Kathy’s level of commitment when during a recent accreditation that Kathy told me she would have to cancel a vacation day, and apologized for missing our Friday morning huddle. I then noticed her literally jogging through the Y3 area to attend to another issue, as I presume she did not want to waste time walking to address that issue.
Outside the hospital Kathy enjoys walking with her dog Sadie, and is an avid gardener. She also enjoys her “happy place” at the lake in the summers. Most of all she loves spending time with her family, son Scott and his wife Kim, and her daughter Amanda and granddaughter Seren.
Kathy will be retiring this summer, and will take a well-deserved rest at the end of June. Good luck and thank you for your dedication and years of service to the Cardiac Sciences Program.
Rita Mann has been an Administrative Secretary with the Cardiac Sciences Program since 2003. Rita previously worked at St. Boniface from 1973 to 1980, moved out of province, and then returned in 2002.
Rita is a strong contributor and a team player with the Y3 cardiology admin team. She has seen a number of changes in the section over the years having worked with a number of cardiologists. Rita literally is the right hand of some of the cardiologists she works with, and has been instrumental in providing excellent patient care. Rita is a true team player who is always willing to go the extra mile to help someone in need, whether that be mentoring a new staff, or just answering questions and explaining processes. Rita is also noted as having contributed to the organization and administration of the Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic with Dr. Seifer, Dr. Khoo and Genetics. Rita has been the catch-all with taking on a bunch of extra responsibilities for the department as a whole such as filling out work orders, ordering billing cards, booking rooms, ordering scrubs, ordering office supplies, helping with payroll, and the list goes on and on.
Outside the hospital Rita enjoys spending time with her 2 sons (Sean & Patrick) and 3 grandsons – James 12, Matthew 10 & Kyle almost 6. Rita enjoys bike riding and going for walks at Kildonan park with her partner & best friend Henry.
Rita will also be retiring in July, and has earned a well-deserved break.
Again, thank you both for your dedication and years of service to the Cardiac Sciences Program.
Shout Out!
Congratulations to Chris Kuttnig on her appointment as president-elect of the Canadian Council of Cardiovascular Nurses (CCCN).
This Week’s Faculty Publications
Cameron R Eekhoudt, Tessa Bortoluzzi, Sonu S Varghese, David Y C Cheung, Simon Christie, Skyler Eastman, Ishika Mittal, J Alejandro Austria, Harold M Aukema, Amir Ravandi, James Thliveris, Pawan K Singal, Davinder S Jassal Comparing Flaxseed and Perindopril in the Prevention of Doxorubicin and Trastuzumab-Induced Cardiotoxicity in C57Bl/6 Mice Curr Oncol. 2022 Apr 21;29(5):2941-2953. doi: 10.3390/curroncol29050241
Ross
