Lauren Kemper

I attribute my success to getting up every single day and doing my work for the patients I work with. During COVID, I was sometimes the only human that a person would see who would hold their hand in hospitals when they had COVID and were on ventilators. I kept going because that was my calling. Even as a director for quite a few years, when you really think about being the only social worker in a facility for over 100 people, the emotional toll that can take is significant. But I've learned to find what resonates with me and pursue that with all of my passion and all of my energy - that's what leads to success. For me, it's about helping patients try to recover and try to live their best life, even if they have COVID, even if they're dying, even with the smallest goals, like just getting them discharged to the home that they've had for 30 years. I don't know how I keep going, but I do, and I'm only in my early career. My success comes from thinking outside of myself and focusing on what is really meaningful to me, no matter what I do.

The best career advice I've ever received is to think outside of yourself and think about what really is meaningful to you, no matter what you do. I've learned that sometimes helping patients try to recover and try to live their best life, even if they have COVID, even if they're dying, even if it's just the smallest goals like the discharge to the home that they've had for 30 years - that's what matters. The advice is to find what resonates with you and pursue that with all of your passion and all of your energy, and you will succeed. That's what I've done, and I don't know how I keep going, but the passion is what gets you through all the hard stuff.

My advice would be to get as much education as you can to fulfill the role of your position, matched with as much on-the-job training as you can. I strongly encourage you to identify a mentor that you can learn from, someone who is willing to teach you, and be sure that you're teachable and that you have a solid relationship. Try to cultivate that, because that, to me, is a recipe for success. It's not just one or the other - in my profession, I've found that without my degree and without the knowledge of all the current Washington administrative codes, government regulations, and different components, that knowledge really contributes to helping you understand what people are going through and how that directly affects people's lives. But you also need the actual clinical application of getting next to someone who literally just had surgery, they're not able to walk, they have no one to take care of them, and figuring out how to meld this all together. Essentially, try to get as much of that experience and education as you can, and try to find a good mentor to start you off on the best foot. And lastly, stay hungry and driven. No amount of education will do a person any good if they're not driven to succeed and to stay hungry for the next level, asking yourself what you're going to do to continue to improve. It's not just about improving other people's lives - I want to improve my life and be able to pay my house off and have a good income as well. So have that always learning mindset, and remind yourself every day that without your job, without this, nothing else happens.

One of the biggest challenges in the human services field right now is workforce strain, limited funding and resources, and the ongoing need to prevent unnecessary institutionalization while still providing high-quality, compassionate care. However, she also sees tremendous opportunities to expand client access, strengthen community advocacy, and create more sustainable, person-centered support systems for vulnerable populations. She believes this moment calls for innovative leadership, collaboration, and continued investment in services that empower individuals and help communities thrive with dignity and support.

The values most important to me in both my professional and personal life are self-care and prioritizing yourself and having good boundaries. It's about being able to say no, I'm getting off at my scheduled time, I'm not going to work two hours extra. Being able to set those boundaries is critical. Honestly, a lot of self-care is essential - I go to the gym, I try to get enough sleep every night, I try to eat well, and I engage with my primary care doctor and am not afraid to ask for help if I need help. I go to my appointments and take care of my physical health so that I can take care of other people. I also focus on avoiding unhealthy things like smoking and drinking, because those things tax you and make it hard to do your job well and stay refreshed. I've learned to try to have a good support system, people I can talk to, which for me is actually my coworkers, but also a husband who I can share things with. It took me quite a few years learning the hard way, getting sick, sometimes burning out, to figure out what I need to stay in a role if it's important enough for me. I'm just happy that I'm in a place now where I've been able to figure it out, one step at a time.