This month, we’re featuring our 2023 Scott and Nikki Niswonger Servant’s Heart Award winners in Ballad Health News, as well as on Ballad Health social media. The award honors team members, physicians and volunteers who display the heart of a servant by going above and beyond the normal call of duty in helping others at work and in the community, as nominated by their peers.
Click on the video player below to see a brief profile of our next winner, Jeanne Clarke. And use the link at the bottom of this story to nominate someone for the 2024 Servant’s Heart Award!
Jeanne Clarke, a registered nurse and health promotions coordinator with Ballad Health, has a passion for helping others.
Her 37-year nursing career has touched the lives of thousands of patients in our community. She served as a medical-surgical nurse at Johnson City Medical Center before transitioning her focus to serve the community in the former Mountain States Health Alliance Health Resource Center at the Mall at Johnson City, serving at the center for the entirety of its operation.
During her tenure at the Health Resource Center, Jeanne orchestrated several community initiatives including, “Walks Across Europe” and “Walks Across the Appalachian Trail.” These unique, interactive exercise programs allowed clients to travel virtually across the United States and Europe. Often, the program included supplemental activities to add to its immersion, including a speaker who taught participants about the Tour de France over a lunch of French onion soup.
Jeanne then became a staff nurse at Memorial Park Community Center in Johnson City, where she serves community members through the Johnson City Seniors’ Center. Jeanne aids and provides healthcare for a diverse range of citizens, often aiding people lacking financial stability or in need of extra support.
Stories abound of her helping those in need, always with a personal and compassionate touch. She helped one senior citizen with his blood pressure and blood sugar checks, learned he did not have a permanent home and was living in a hotel, and helped him find a home. Another senior was blind, widowed and without many financial resources when she crossed paths with Jeanne during her visits to the center. Jeanne saw a need and stepped in to help the woman schedule doctors’ appointments, shop for groceries and arrange transportation.
One 93-year-old patient credits Jeanne with saving her life. A regular at the Memorial Park Community Center, the woman got to know Jeanne through her regular blood pressure and sugar checkups. One day, she began choking during her birthday celebration at the facility. Jeanne was there to assist and helped the woman set up treatment for her swallowing difficulties.
Jeanne’s compassion for people extends beyond her job as a nurse in the community center. She also serves as a mentor in Grace Fellowship Church’s “Regeneration” outreach program, which aids people in recovery. There, Jeanne connected with a woman who would become incarcerated. During the woman’s time in jail, Jeanne not only prayed for her, but visited her to bring her small comforts like toiletries and phone cards to help the woman keep in touch with her relatives. Jeanne even took the time to care for the woman’s cats, call her family and attend her court hearings – just another example of how she is constantly serving others.
More about the Servant’s Heart Award
The award was named in honor of Scott and Nikki Niswonger. Scott is a Greeneville businessman and philanthropist who is the chief benefactor of the Niswonger Children’s Hospital in Johnson City, and a member of the Ballad Health board of directors. The Niswongers have a long history of serving others throughout the region, with a strong focus on education highlighted by the creation of The Niswonger Foundation.
Nominate someone!
Do you know someone who has the heart of a servant and deserves recognition for their great work? If so, nominate them for the 2024 Servant’s Heart Award!
