‘It’s part of her DNA to give:’ Petaluma woman’s long career in healthcare

Stephanie Bodi, the Health Hero award winner, worked 19 years at Petaluma Valley Hospital.|

Stephanie Bodi has always trusted her instincts.

If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have the courage to step away from her 19th year as the patient relations and volunteer services manager at Petaluma Valley Hospital. Not to mention leaving the week she received the Health Hero award, an honor bestowed upon the most dedicated and community-minded health professionals.

At the fourth annual Community Partnership Appreciation Breakfast on May 16, the Petaluma Health Care District recognized Bodi in front of more than 100 attendees, including state legislators and numerous local officials.

“It’s a lot just to be nominated let alone picked,” Bodi, 60, said. “The experience was overwhelming and I’m not the type of person that tends to get overwhelmed … To have someone recognize the work you do in such a public fashion was quite an honor.”

But that moment was more of an exclamation mark that punctuated a long and fulfilling career that began taking shape in 1999, when she joined PVH.

Last Thursday Bodi clocked in for the last time and, like she has so often over the years, she was forced to stay late, writing letters of recommendation for students enrolled in the junior volunteer program she built.

“It’s part of her DNA to give,” said Elece Hempel, PCHD Board President.

Now that she’s retired, Bodi will travel through Scotland with her husband for two weeks. Next month, she’ll be off-the-grid, hiking in the mountains. When she gets back, she’s going to pick up a brush and start painting the house.

She wouldn’t have this kind of summer schedule if she didn’t listen to her instincts and trust the signals sounding off inside her after deep introspection.

“It was almost like a spiritual journey in terms of looking at life and what I’ve accomplished and what lies ahead,” Bodi said. “I really just reached the end of what I had to give here so it was time to look to see what’s next.”

Bodi’s 97-year-old great aunt, Sarah Bullock, was the reason she got into healthcare. Bullock was an army nurse during World War II, and served “all over the world,” Bodi said. She showed remarkable mental and intestinal fortitude, providing care for soldiers enduring some of the most traumatic experiences anyone can have.

“I wanted to be like my aunt,” Bodi said. “I wanted to be a nurse.”

When she was 16, her dream of being a nurse collided with a hard dose of reality. As a candy striper at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Bodi was dropping off some paperwork at the emergency room and came face-to-face with tragedy.

Three victims of a car accident were being wheeled into the hospital and the sight of it, the energy surrounding this moment, she paused and felt its gravity.

Once again, Bodi followed her instincts.

“I realized at that time that nursing wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Bodi recalled. “At that moment I knew that wasn’t going to be my destiny. I think that’s always stayed with me because I could’ve stayed the course, going forward (with being a nurse), and not recognized (it wasn’t for me) until I was too far into it.”

That realization has been the driving force behind the programs Bodi has created in Petaluma. In addition to handling patient relations, serving as a spokesperson and advocate for families and individuals, she’s championed multiple volunteer programs that have become backbone initiatives at PVH.

The most notable is the Junior Volunteer Program that helps high school and college-aged students get involved with different elements at a hospital. It’s a program that’s shaped hundreds of medical careers, but it’s also helped students challenge themselves with the realities that come with the job.

Bodi estimated about three percent of the volunteers realize “it wasn’t what they wanted it to be,” and they get the opportunity to chart a new path while they’re still young.

“For others, they come in and this is it,” she said. “This is the environment they know they want to be in professionally.”

Bodi will have plenty of time in the coming months to reflect on what she wants to do next. Sitting idly by as the world spins is something she’s never been able to do and, naturally, her instincts are already sending signals on what lies ahead.

“It’s about following that path,” she said. “Do I think I’m going to continue to do something in the world of volunteer leadership? Probably.”

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)

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