Local Spirit of Women Award winners receive national honors

Spirit of Women Network national Health Care Hero Award winner Elizabeth Sushereba, CNM, received her award in person at the network's gathering July 18 in Miami. With Sushereba are Julie Silverstein, M.D., FACP, medical director of Christiana Care's Wilmington Health Center, (right) and Malissa Owen, Spirit of Women client services manager.

July 30, 2014

Two women who were honored this spring at Christiana Care’s Champions of Service Awards were selected as national winners at the 2014 Spirit of Women Awards.

Elizabeth Sushereba, CNM, honored with the Health Care Hero Award, and Emily Zhang, winner of the Young Person Role Model Award, were among the three national honorees featured at the Spirit of Women National Executive Meeting in Miami, Fla., July 18.

Spirit of Women, a national coalition of hospitals and health care facilities advancing the cause and business of women’s health, organizes the Spirit of Women Awards. Christiana Care Health System has been a member of Spirit of Women since 2008.

Spirit of Women national Young Person Role Model award winner Emily Zhang traveled to Florida with her mother, Rachel Zhang, to receive her award July 18 in Miami. With the Zhangs are Peggy Mika, Christiana Care's director of Marketing Communications, and Malissa Owen, Spirit of Women client services manager. — Spirit of Women national Young Person Role Model award winner Emily Zhang traveled to Florida with her mother, Rachel Zhang, to receive her award July 18 in Miami. With the Zhangs are Peggy Mika, Christiana Care’s director of Marketing Communications, and Malissa Owen, Spirit of Women client services manager.

Sushereba, who became Christiana Care’s first certified nurse midwife seven years ago, was named the Health Care Hero award winner for the way she empowers women every day, teaching that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes and encouraging women to take an active role in their health. Sushereba spends a great deal of her time away from her job at Christiana Care on efforts to improve health care in developing-world countries. She has traveled to sub-Saharan Zambia to help bring modernized medicine to a rural underserved area, setting up health care clinics, delivering babies and educating medical staff. She has positively affected the lives of countless women and children. At home in the community she also volunteers with youth, being active in her church community.

“I do believe that God has given me the ability, resources and time to help those in need,” she said. “I especially feel a strong pull to working with women who have so much less but so many more obstacles. I cannot imagine my life spent any other way. And my husband supports me completely.”

Zhang’s Young Person Role Model award is due to her significant positive impact on her local community and her effect globally through service and development initiatives. Locally, Zhang serves lunch to hundreds of underserved people in Wilmington, while globally she travels to Haiti to help in a medical clinic, a women’s group and a children’s summer camp. As head intern for the nonprofit, Students For Haiti, Inc., she helps the organization form partnerships to better serve the people of Haiti. Zhang is pursuing a career in medicine and is returning to Haiti this summer.