Camesha Thomas

I've been in healthcare for 24 years, inspired to enter the field by my grandmothers on both my father's and mother's side who were nurses, along with my mother and aunt who were also nurses. I grew up around the field and really wanted to go into an area where I felt like I could make a difference and help people. I started at the bedside as a bedside nurse and worked my way into critical care, where I spent most of my career. In 2012, after having my firstborn, I had to make some decisions about bedside work with its 12-hour shifts. My leadership team had talked to me previously about going into leadership, and I kind of went into it kicking and screaming. However, they saw this unofficial leadership quality in me and wanted to help nurture that, so I transitioned to my first leadership role around 2012. I'm originally from Toronto, Canada, and I moved to Texas in 2019, just before COVID happened. During the pandemic, I really leaned back into the bedside because all hands were on deck. I continued my leadership journey and currently am in a director position at a Level 1 trauma facility, which I've been doing now for just about 2 years. We have a pretty large scope that we take care of, including Level 1 trauma, ECMO, and burn care, so it's a very large facility that takes care of the sickest of the sick. My job is to really help support the teams and get them what they need, provide leadership for them. The best thing about my job is really just making sure that those at the front line have what they need to do the things they need to do and care for people.