Crozer Health Trauma Educator Loreen Evans Named First Recipient of Gwendolyn A. Smith Award for Community Service
Loreen Evans, MSN, CCNS, RN, CEN, TCRN, Crozer Health Emergency Department/Trauma Educator and Injury Prevention Coordinator, has been named the first recipient of the Gwendolyn A. Smith Award for Community Service.
The Gwendolyn A. Smith Award for Community Service was created to honor recent retiree, Gwendolyn (Gwen) A. Smith’s legacy and commitment to our community. The award is given to a current Crozer Health employee who makes significant contributions to the community through their time, talent, actions, and dedication. The award recognizes employees’ unyielding dedication to community service and to improving the lives of others. Evans was selected because she consistently exhibits the same values that Smith lives by every day.
The award committee also recognized two finalists for the Gwen Smith Award. Tiffany Marron is Bereavement/Volunteer Coordinator for Crozer Health Hospice, which helps people at end of life remain safe at home with dignity and respect. Shavonne Southerland, MSN, RN is Clinical Director of the Emergency Department at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.
“Loreen and Gwen are remarkable nurses who share wonderful qualities that benefit our patients and communities, and we should all aspire to be more like them,” said Christine Mendez, MSN, RN, Chief Nurse Executive at Crozer Health. “I’m thrilled that Loreen has been recognized with this award, and I’m so thankful that they’re both part of our Crozer Health family!”
Evans was shocked when told she was the award recipient.
“This is a huge deal, being compared to someone as fabulous as Gwen,” she said. “She’s amazing and such an inspiration! She has done – and is still doing – so much for our health system and community.” Always humble, Evans said, “I hope to be as influential as Gwen is, but I have my work cut out for me!”
Like Smith, Evans is dedicated to her Crozer Health patients and gives back to her local communities. For 20 years, she has volunteered with the fire department’s EMS service in Aston Township, where she resides, by staffing ambulances and taking emergency calls. She started her years of volunteering when a friend at West Chester University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in nursing, got her involved with the local EMS service there. “I really enjoyed it and I stuck with it,” she said.
In June 2003, Evans joined Crozer Health as a student nurse/patient care tech in the telemetry unit. She missed the faster pace of the EMS field and expressed her desire to work in the Emergency Department. She later received her Clinical Nurse Specialist in Emergency Care degree from Widener University and began her career in trauma education and outreach.
Evans spearheads a variety of Crozer Health trauma outreach/education programs geared to injury prevention, car seat safety, drivers’ education, falls prevention, and more. She says being a trauma educator is very rewarding, especially when she hears how her prevention efforts helped saved lives.
“I like to give people knowledge to help themselves, to give them tools so they can avoid becoming a patient,” she explained.
“I didn’t work closely with Gwen until we started the COVID vaccine clinics last year,” she said. Her dedication to the community during that time was heartwarming to me. She’s so kind to everyone she meets and goes above and beyond for everyone.”
When asked why she’s stayed so long with Crozer Health, she said, “I really enjoy the people I work with, and I like seeing community members learn new things.”
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