Amy Cacabelos (co-Lead Mentor)
acacabelos@aol.com
Amy, a critical care nurse at O'Connor Hospital since 1990, has been an RN for over seventeen years. In addition to being a mentor she is involved with various professional committees and teaches BLS. Amy's desire is to make a positive impact on nursing by encouraging her fellow nurses to realize their full potential to grow both professionally and personally. Amy, like many of her peers both in and out of the mentor program share the same ultimate goal and that is an increase in retention and overall job satisfaction for nurses.

Yolanda Correa (co-Lead Mentor)
yfcmedsurgrn@aol.com
Yolanda has been with O'Connor Hospital's Med/Surg/Tele unit since 1996. Born and raised in Mexico, Yolanda hopes that her multi-cultural background and her enthusiasm for nursing will be beneficial to the new and transitioning nurses who she is mentoring.

Greta Hutchinson
greatahutch@yahoo.com
Greta believes in creating and fostering a positive orienting experience for all new nurses. Her mentor while in college instilled these, among many, values which she has practiced during her twelve years as a nurse. Great earned a BS from University of California - Davis and her BSN from California State University Fresno. She has been an ICU/CCU RN at O'Connor Hospital since 1995.

Linda Parsons
Linda has been a nurse for thirty six-years and at O'Connor Hospital for thirty-two of them. She is currently a charge nurse in O'Connor's Med/Surg Telemetry Orthopedics unit. Linda earned her nursing degree at the Grant Hospital School of Nursing in Columbus, Ohio. One of Linda's greatest rewards as a mentor is when she sees a nurse that she mentored sharing their experience and knowledge with a newer nurse.

Tami Struble
It may have only been a little over three years ago when Tami graduated and earned her RN license, but she has years of experience working in healthcare and understands very well that nursing is not your typical job. She is currently working at O'Connor Hospital on their Med/Surg/Tele unit, where she has been since she started. Tami is motivated to be a mentor out of her passion for teaching, and helping new RNs feel comfortable and confident when starting their new careers.

Becki Beckwith
dreamboatbecki11@aol.com
Becky has been in nursing for a total of nine years. The first seven as an LVN and for the past two years she has worked in the Oncology department at O'Connor Hospital. She has been fortunate during her career transition to have the strong support of her coworkers. It is experiences and support that Becki would like to be able to share with others when they are starting out or having a career transition, and being a mentor is one way she believes she can do this.

Kristin Harris
With her BSN from the University of San Francisco, Kristin began her nursing career in the Labor and Delivery unit at O'Connor Hospital where she remains today. She is currently working on her MSN from California State University-Dominguez Hills. Kristin's goal as a mentor is to help new graduate nurses, and nurses new to O'Connor Hospital, navigate through their new work environment and utilize the resources available to them.

Marjorie Simpson
Thirty-four years in nursing with the past twenty in the Intensive Care Unit at O'Connor Hospital, Marjorie is a veteran nurse with a wealth of experience to share. She believes that through mentoring she will be able to contribute to maintaining and improving the standards of nursing.

Sylvan Lepiane
We have to work with less and do more. We have to recruit and then retain. To retain we need to do even more, that is why we must make it our responsibility to mentor. Sylvan has been an RN for thirty three years which includes even a few years in cardiac surgery in Brazil. She has been working in the OR at O'Connor Hospital for the past twenty years.

Lydia Gmerek
gmereklydia@aol.com
Lydia has been an RN at GSH NICU since 1987. She has earned her BSN from SJSU. She enjoys the many facets of nursing from being a primary nurse who cares for a baby and family from admission to discharge (months of hospitalization), to being in charge, going out on neonatal transport, precepting new RNs, helping and mentoring her coworkers. In the past Lydia has been on the PPC ans has worked on the Safe Staffing Law. She is a CNA rep, is on the NICU Discharge Teaching committee, and is currently working on standardizing NICU medication drips and bringing Family Centered Care practice to GSH NICU. She is excited about being a mentor through the CNF program to help other RNs achieve their dreams.

Brenda Gaidies-Smith
bmsmith@mac.com
Brenda has worked in the O'Connor Hospital ICU/Hemodialysis Unit for the past eight of her fifteen years in nursing. A graduate of the nursing program at Centennial College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, she wants to help support those nurse coming into the profession to feel that it is a worth-while profession to be a part of.

Susan Byrne
Susan has been in the nursing field for twelve years working in a variety of settings at O'Connor Hospital, for the past two years she has been in the Mother/Baby unit. As a charge nurse and preceptor Susan is an advocate for both her patients and her nurses. Her passion for teaching guides her compassionate and caring support in her role as a mentor.

Brenda Speakman
brendalouspeak@yahoo.com
Brenda earned her AA in Nursing from the University of South Dakota-Vermillion and went to work immediately at the Sioux Falls, SD Women & Children's Center's NICU. That was twelve years ago and now Brenda works at O'Connor hospital in the NICU / PICU, where both her protective and supportive demeanor have proven to be great assets to not only her but her patients and coworkers as well, and participating in the mentor program just seems like the natural thing for her to do.

Fahimeh Odisho
More than forty years after earning her Nursing Diploma in England, Fahimeh is still nursing. Currently in the PACU / ICU at O'Connor Hospital, she has a varied educational past spanning the globe from England, Iran for her BSN, and then Chicago's
Roosevelt University for a Masters in Public Health Care Administration. Fostering a greater understanding of the diversity of culture and beliefs is an important aspect of Fahimeh's goals as a mentor.