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I grew up in southern York county
one of four children
to Terry and Shelva Hildebrand
on, um,
my grandparents fruit farm actually. Faus' fruit farm.
which is now the site of
Apple Hill Medical Center. My grandfather actually
grew peaches there,
and that's what it was known for at the time I was growing up there.
So I grew up in that environment.
A very happy
friendly environment with a lot of my extended family all within walking
distance of our home.
I had the privilege of attending Christian School of York,
K-12
mostly due to my parents efforts of working several jobs. My dad actually
Worked and stocked shelves at night, late at night, in addition to being
a milkman and some other things that he did. My mother
continued to work as a nurse aide and care for people's children.
As we grew older,
she decided she wanted to go to nursing school and so she went to LPN school
at Vo-Tech,
and graduated and got her LPN and started working at Wellspan.
York Hospital at the time.
This inspired my sister and I to also pursue nursing
later on in our lives
and my sister
also graduated from LPN school and has been at York Hospital/Wellspan for
thirty-plus years now.
After
graduation from Christian school, I went on to nursing school and school
went to Wesley College in Dover, Delaware.
It was an accelerated Associate Degree RN program
so that by the age of nineteen I was graduated and getting ready to sit
and take my state board,
which I did later that year and passed and got my RN.
I started working at York Hospital
initially in the oncology unit
and eventually I went on to the cardiac telemetry unit which is where most of the post-op
open heart surgery patients went.
When I was about ten years old my family began attending
Grace Baptist Church in Windsor Township
and we've been going there ever since actually.
And when I was about fifteen
I met Jeff Gay, who is now my husband.
We were involved in youth group together and actually,
all of my siblings met their future spouses at that same youth group.
We got married in 1982 and then
in 1983 we moved
away to Florida because we both had some
job offers that took us away for a few years.
While I was there I
worked at Shand's Hospital, which is the big University of Florida hospital.
Similar to Johns Hopkins would be here.
and I had great opportunities there, mostly in critical care,
those are the areas that I worked in.
While we were in Florida
our daughter Tiffany was born,
and then we moved back to York.
We enrolled her at CSY, Christian School of York
which she attended
K-12
She went on to Messiah College and got her degree there.
She has been working with her dad
at Miller & Gay
as the communications manager.
She also is married to Andrew Blackstone
and they've given us our first grandchild, Josiah,
who is now three years old.
We also have a son,
Daniel,
who was born here in Pennsylvania
and uh... attended Christian School K-12 also.
He went to Columbia College Chicago where he studied film production.
And he's set to graduate
this coming May of 2013, just two days before the primary,
so it will be a busy week for us!
Exciting news for him is that he recently
proposed to his girlfriend and is now engaged to Amanda Burgess.
I've been involved in Republican politics
from the age of eighteen.
My husband and I have had the privilege of attending
several
National Republican Conventions
and I've also had the privilege of
serving as Todd Platts' campaign treasurer,
uh, People for Platts,
for five years.
And, I've been Republican committee woman
in the third district of Springettsbury Township now for twelve years.
I've also had the opportunity
in assisting my husband in developing his small business from a startup
to a successful investment management practice here in York county
with eleven team members.
And some of those same principles I've been able to apply
in my own small business.
I do medical legal consulting
and I've been doing that now for eleven years
and what that involves is, its basically a form of forensic nursing in which I
work
with attorneys and insurance companies in obtaining expert witnesses
and I do work with the chart, the medical record largely,
as physical evidence
in various
types of proceedings. And I write medical briefs for the attorneys
so that they can understand the medical terminology and the various
disease processes.
Something that's important to me as a nurse is maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.
and some of the ways I do that are by riding my bike and walking.
It was a privilege to be appointed
to be a member of the Rail Trail Authority.
Since 2004 I've been serving in that capacity alongside other
dedicated community leaders
and we've been making some important decisions
surrounding the expansion of the Rail Trail along the northern extension
and the Hanover Trolley Trail.
I've also had some unique teaching opportunities in my nursing career.
I was able to teach high schoolers health occupations, um, at York Vo-Tech
for several years and I supervised them clinically in area nursing homes as well
as taught them in the classroom.
And then I was able to teach
adult students
in various
nursing home affiliated programs
and supervise them clinically also, and taught them in the classroom.
Most recently, I have been working as part of the forensic nursing team
at Wellspan/York Hospital
where I received extensive training
and now work with individuals impacted by
violence such as *** abuse, child abuse,
domestic violence,
elder abuse,
and I work with those individuals
in helping them when they first come into the emergency department.
And we collect the evidence, we provide them the resources, we treat
them uh... with the medications that they need
and we work with them and their families
to get them the counseling and the other sources that they need upon discharge.
We also work with the Police and the District Attorney's office in collecting
the evidence
we maintain the chain of custody
and sometimes we are called to testify.
Since 1988,
my husband and I have been discussing
the possibility of my one day running for York County Coroner,
when our children were grown.
By now you can see that my various roles and opportunities that I've had
in business, nursing,
journalism and technology,
they've all prepared me
for this role at this point in time, especially my experience in forensic nursing.
I would like to take the role of York County Coroner
to a higher level.
and I would appreciate your support.