Heart of Healthcare Award
“HEART OF HEALTHCARE” AWARDEES WORK LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY
Award, sponsored by Volunteers in Medicine, to honor two exceptional medical volunteers.
BEND – Mike Mara, MD, and Colette Whelan, RN, BSN, MSDMM, will each receive the 2011 “Heart of Healthcare Award” to honor their volunteer work with the medically underserved.
“We are so proud to be presenting this award to Mike and Colette,” states Kat Mastrangelo, Executive Director of Volunteers in Medicine, sponsor of the Award. “The medical community in Central Oregon is extremely generous, but these two individuals stand out – the quality and scope of their work, and the number of nominations they received made a strong impact on our selection committee. With this award we hope to highlight the exceptional work they are doing, as well as to shine a light on medical volunteerism as a whole.”
Both Mara and Whelan have volunteered hundreds of hours locally and internationally.
Mara is an Orthopedic Surgeon with Desert Orthopedics. He volunteers locally with Volunteers in Medicine Clinic of the Cascades, seeing patients at the clinic and performing numerous pro-bono surgeries. Mara’s medical missions have taken him to Latvia, Brazil, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tanzania, Nepal, Haiti, and most recently, Kenya.
(Video credit: Scott Nelson Photography)
Whelan, a Registered Nurse with an MS in Disaster Medicine and Management, is currently a Public Health Emergency Preparedness Liaison to ten counties throughout Central Oregon. She organizes the medical volunteers who provide services to more than 2,500 local residents in need annually through Project Connect. In addition, she volunteers with Medical Teams International specializing in disaster response – the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and three trips to Haiti since the recent earthquake. Whelan also taught emergency medical services in Vietnam in 2006.
(Video credit: Scott Nelson Photography)
Mara and Whelan were presented with their “Heart of Healthcare Award” at a dinner in their honor on Friday, May 6, 2011 at the Seventh Mountain Resort. To learn more about the Heart of Healthcare.
