Jeanne McMillan

I attribute my success to my faith and spirituality. I am very spiritual - I pray when I get up in the morning and talk to God half the day or more. I've had some hard knocks, and I totally believe that it's not our plan, it's His. Every time something has not worked out for me and I've questioned it, things are always better with His plan. Every single time. Everything that has happened to me, if I just let it go and say, you know what, this was not meant to be, it's His plan, and He does it better. I was born in poverty, my parents were divorced, I got divorced and had to raise my children single, and you think the whole world's ending. Then you meet someone, and it's the one you were supposed to be with. I've had things happen in the DAR where women blackballed me and I thought I was gonna move up, and I thought, okay God, apparently I'm not supposed to have this. But what's really cool is I was supposed to be chair of the flag, and that's perfect for me. So it's like, just let it go. If I just let it be and let Him take over, every single thing in my life is better.

When I was 16, I was a waitress, and the lady who owned the diner would come pick me up for work. I remember getting in her car one day, and her saying to me, Jeannie, I want to talk to you about something. She said, always be careful about the friends you run with, and the people you make as your friends. I still remember that to this day, because I used to tell the kids on the recovery center that would come in, you are who you run with. I think there was a couple of girls she did not particularly care that I ran with, and she would say, you be careful. Then, only a few years ago, I was at a function, and one of my girlfriends came up to me and said, that gal over there? She is not your friend. And I said, no, you know, I needed to hear that. She goes, oh yes, you did. She said, I will always tell you. That really is important for people to know, especially young girls, because girls are so hard on each other, and there's so much peer pressure. And then when you get older, there are still mean girls out there. Every day I say to myself, be kind. It's all about being kind. It's easy just to be kind.

Being a laboratory technician is one of the best jobs there are. It's just fabulous. But I think that strength, strength and faith in themselves, and believe that they can do it. I think that women, especially young women, have low self-esteem, and there's a lot of pressure, and even a lot of pressure to succeed. And then when you get to be my age, it's like, why did I worry about all that? Or why did I fight for that? You don't have to compare yourself to others. You don't have to be like others. You have to be you. But you have to believe in yourself. Believe in yourself, believe you can do it. Maybe taking some leadership courses, things like that, but I think it's believing in their self.

I hope AI isn't going to be a challenge. In the field of laboratory medicine, there are lots and lots of women. There is not any kind of sexual preference issue - there are lots of women in the laboratory field. And the DAR is all women, so I don't think there are any challenges in that regard. I would just say the biggest challenge may be AI sometime. As far as technology, laboratory technology keeps improving and improving. When I first started out, we were doing manual testing. By the time I retired, everything was automated. I've been gone now for not quite 20 years, but I'm sure that everything is upgraded and so much nicer. I'm sure also that a lot of it will become AI. That's what I see, because the medical field is becoming that way. They're using AI to detect cancer.

Honesty and integrity. Absolutely. Those are the values that matter most to me in both my work and personal life.