USD Magazine Fall 2013

t’s safe to assume most people aren’t in a big hurry to leave a tropical paradise like Hawaii, what with its world-famous beaches, idyllic climate and breathtaking natural beauty. Then again, Ann Taylor ’95 isn’t most people. In March of 2010, just a few short weeks after retiring in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the clinical nurse specialist boarded a plane bound for Port Au Prince, Haiti. A devastating earthquake had just rocked the impoverished TORERO NOTES I [ r e s o l u t e ]

A HEART FOR HEALING Ann Taylor is on a mission to improve Haitian health care by Mike Sauer

“You don’t just run blindly into the fray and try to help,” says Taylor, whose volunteer work with HIV/AIDS patients in Tijuana, Mexico, earned her USD’s Bishop Buddy Humanitar- ian Award in 2005. “That’s coun- terproductive. There need to be protocols and systems in place. Project Medishare did a great job of allocating their resources effectively. I was proud to be a part of their team.” Taylor had seen her fair share of suffering during her 40-year

nation, and emergency medical service volunteers were needed immediately. As the number of Haitians wounded or killed multiplied by the day, Taylor, who received both her MSN and PhD from USD, knew she needed to act quickly to put her nursing skills to use and volunteered with the University of Miami’s Project Medishare, a nonprofit organization that dispensed resources to Haiti for the recovery effort.

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USD MAGAZINE