Three community leaders from NHRMC earned awards at the YWCA Women of Achievement awards dinner on Tuesday night at the Wilmington Convention Center.
NHRMC’s nominees included:
- Business: Kristy Hubard
- Trailblazer: Marissa Bryant
- Health & Wellness: Christy Spivey
- Public Service: Cori Dixon
Spivey, Bryant and Dixon won awards in their categories.
Marissa Bryant
As a community advocate, Certified Health Education Specialist, and NHRMC’s Health Equity Outreach Coordinator, Marissa has worked tirelessly to develop partnerships and positive community relations that promote equity and inclusivity throughout the city. Throughout her short tenure under NHRMC’s newly adopted Health Equity pillar, the focal point of her work has been the Northside Community—where she was raised.
Some of Marissa’s initiatives:
- Implemented Dancin’ in the Park, a community-based initiative focused on promoting healthy lifestyles and positive relationships within African American communities.
- Led efforts to identify disparities and needs of 200 community residents.
- Leading the Northside Health and Well-being Improvement Team, a group of local organizations and community partners collaborating to address the needs and concerns of Wilmington’s Northside Community.
Cori Dixon
Cori Dixon’s extraordinary commitment to public service and volunteerism was sparked first from a love of sports and coaching, and then by an awareness of how much she could help those with physical and developmental disabilities experience the joy of teamwork and inclusion on the field.
Cori has had a lifelong enthusiasm for sports. Since the age of eight, she has played competitive softball at the local, regional, and national levels. The passion of sharing her love for athletics has spanned more than 25 years as a teacher, coach, and volunteer. Even though Cori eventually followed her technical interests into a career in information technology and cybersecurity, she continued to run softball and volleyball clinics for several high school and travel teams.
Armed with a desire to help provide inclusive athletic opportunities and quality coaching for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Cori has been involved with both Special Olympics and Miracle League. She is responsible for coordinating the Special Olympics UNCW Unified Sports program, which pairs UNCW students and Special Olympics athletes on the same team to train and compete. Such an approach fosters inclusion and teamwork on the field which leads to friendship and understanding off the field. Recently she served as head coach of the UNCW Unified Flag Football team that was selected to compete as part of Special Olympics Team North Carolina in the 2018 USA Games in Seattle, Washington. Cori currently coaches Special Olympics Unified basketball, Unified flag football, and traditional softball. She has coached the NHRMC Rehabilitation Hospital Miracle League baseball team for five years and has been instrumental in the development of the competitive division. She has served on the board and various committees of Special Olympics New Hanover County and chairs the Community Outreach Committee as a member of the NHRMC Leadership, Education, and Awareness for Disabilities (LEAD) Employee Resource Group.
Christy Spivey
Christy Spivey’s work in healthcare leadership spans the region, improving the coordination of care between hospitals and emergency systems, the services provided to our most vulnerable citizens, and the ways in which the region’s largest healthcare system improves access to care for all those in need.
Spivey, a nurse and healthcare administrator, started as a certified nursing assistant in the emergency department and, worked her way up to oversee all NHRMC’s trauma program and eventually, regional partnerships. Along the way, she led a $30 million expansion of NHRMC’s main campus emergency department as well as the opening of a free-standing emergency department in the northern part of New Hanover County. Her leadership brought together diverse voices, from the nurses and physicians providing care at the bedside to the patients and family members receiving care. Together, they created advanced care environments conducive to the practice of medicine and healing.
Less noticeable, but equally impactful, was her championship of programs to help those most in need of special care, including victims of sexual assault and those who face barriers to getting well outside the hospital. Under Christy’s leadership, NHRMC started a Sexual Nurse Examiner program and an Emergency Department Patient Assistant Center to connect patients with resources in the community.
In her current role as administrator for regional services, her work has expanded beyond the walls of the health system. Christy works with hospitals and other agencies in southeastern North Carolina to implement clinical services to address health needs in the local community. This includes cascading care standards and strategies for improving operations to area hospitals, developing business plans to provide specialty health services, and participating in community-based health action planning teams. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Brunswick Wellness Coalition, and the Health and Wellbeing Committee of the Blue-Ribbon Commission.
Kristy Hubard
Few businesses are as complicated and impactful as the healthcare industry. With regulations, payors, patient needs and volume demands shifting frequently and dramatically, it takes an exceptionally strategic thinker, well educated in the industry’s nuances, to navigate the daily currents of change while also planning a course toward a distant future.
Kristy Hubard is the leader who does this for the New Hanover Regional Medical Center system and all those who rely on it for care. As NHRMC’s Chief Strategy Officer, Kristy is responsible for conceptualizing and formulating strategic initiatives to further NHRMC’s mission of ‘Leading Our Community to Outstanding Health’, as well as ensuring the day-to-day activities align with these initiatives.
Kristy started at NHRMC as an administrative resident in 1999 and earned a master’s degree in healthcare administration. She stayed with NHRMC, steadily working her way up to oversee business development and planning, data analytics, government affairs, community outreach, marketing and public relations. She has demonstrated an ability to bring together the business and heart of healthcare. She evaluates the data, the trends, and the impact on those NHRMC serves. Together with other leaders, she finds ways to provide the best care to the most people while guiding the organization’s long-term sustainability.
Kristy has embraced opportunities to learn, grow and share her expertise. She is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and completed its executive program for leadership development in 2010. She earned Lean Healthcare certification, has served as treasurer and board member of Carolinas Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development since 2016, and completed the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Public Health’s Management Academy for Public Health.
Throughout her career at NHRMC and now as its Chief Strategy Officer, Kristy Hubard has helped shape and lead the strategic planning that has successfully grown NHRMC into the high- quality system it is today.