Newspaper Page Text
Page 6A
LOCAL
The Champion, Thursday, Jan. 1 - 7, 2015
JERI LLOYD
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Walking across the stage
at Georgia Perimeter Col
lege (GPC) was a special
moment for Jeri Lloyd.
The Georgia Perimeter
College student received her
nursing pin. It was a walk
that took almost 10 years to
complete.
“When I graduated as
a licensed practical nurse
from DeKalb Tech, I
planned on coming to
nursing school. But life has
a way of slowing things
down,” the mother of three
said.
Lloyd was awarded the
Outstanding Nursing Stu
dent Award for her high
GPA and clinical excellence,
during the college’s 2014
Nurse Pinning Ceremony
held at GPC s Clarkston
Campus.
The traditional cer
emony celebrates nursing
program graduates with a
ceremonial class nursing
pin. Lloyd was one of 31
nurses who graduated in
December.
Lloyd worked as an
LPN in the infusion unit of
Emory’s Winship Cancer
Center when she had twins.
The boy and girl were both
born with a rare blood
disease that does not allow
them to process protein; the
condition requires several
surgeries. (She already had
a 2-year old when the twins
were born).
Over the years, she
stopped and started nurs
ing school, several times she
said. A year ago, she was
accepted to Georgia Perim
eter’s LPN-to-RN acceler
ated bridge program, which
allows licensed practical
nurses to take an acceler
ated course load and com
plete the requirements to
become registered nurses in
three semesters.
Lloyd said she had just
started the program last De
cember, when her maternal
grandmother died. “I felt I
started the program already
behind,” she said. Then, her
stepfather died, followed
by the death of her paternal
grandmother. The deaths
hit her hard, but she contin
ued her studies.
Also during the pro
gram, her daughter be
came severely ill, requiring
Lloyd to take time out to
go to Cincinnati where her
daughter received special
ized treatment and surger
ies. It helped tremendously,
she said, that her husband
took care of the children
while she was in class and in
her clinical rotations.
“It has been really hard,
but I had my family’s sup
port. And I knew, I just can’t
fail—I needed to do this
and get it done for my fam
ily. Becoming a registered
nurse is a huge accomplish
ment for my entire family—
we completed this together.
Despite the long road to
become an RN, Lloyd said
her next steps will be to ob
tain her BSN and master’s
degree in nursing.
If you would like to nominate someone to be considered as a future Champion of the Week, please contact Andrew Cauthen
at andrew@dekalbchamp.com or at (404) 373-7779, ext. 117.
Cancer
Continued from page 3A
the digital interactive tools promote cancer.
It highlights country-by-country strengths
and weaknesses worldwide, allowing poli
cymakers, researchers and academics to
fully assess differences in risk, burden and
prevention, and emphasizes the potential
for improvement by closing those gaps.
“As nations industrialize and develop,
the number of risk factors such as tobacco
use, diet, and physical inactivity increase,
and life expectancy increases, allowing for
people to live long enough to get cancer,”
Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, Ph.D., lead author
of the Cancer Atlas, Second Edition and vice
president of surveillance research at the
American Cancer Society, said.
While developed countries tend to be
associated with higher cancer risk, Jemal
said these countries have also seen declines
in cancer mortality due to advances in ear
ly detection and treatment. He added, “In
the U.S., for example, more than 1.3 mil
lion cancer deaths have been averted over
the past 20 years.”
Economically developing countries
such as India, China, and other east and
central Asian countries account for nearly
half of the world’s new cancer cases and
deaths. Recognizing and identifying the
growing risks will help leaders create a
well-structured plan to combat cancer.
“Perhaps the most striking message
from The Cancer Atlas is the inequality in
access to the very interventions that can ei
ther prevent or effectively treat and manage
the disease,” said Christopher Wild, direc
tor, IARC. “In relation to cancer, where
you live affects your risk of developing the
disease, how you live with the disease and
ultimately whether you survive the disease.
One of the great cancer control challenges
of the 21st century is to bring the benefits
of effective interventions to as many people
Governor announces
career initiative
as possible, including in low- and middle-
income countries,” Wild said.
Cary Adams, CEO of the UICC,
added: “What we need is the engagement
of governments and national cancer lead
ers around the world to put that knowledge
into practice. These steps do not need
breakthrough science to be effective. They
demand the application of known interven
tions which are effective in all situations,
as well as the transfer of knowledge so the
challenge of cancer becomes manageable in
the minds of the many.”
Other findings from The Cancer Atlas
include:
• Smoking causes more than 16 different
types of cancer and accounts for 20 per
cent of all global cancer deaths.
• Indoor air pollution caused by solid fuel
use is estimated to cause about 2.5 mil
lion deaths each year in developing coun
tries, or about 4.5 percent of global deaths
each year.
• 137 countries have a national cancer plan.
• 129 countries have not yet introduced the
HPV vaccine, which may prevent infec
tions and certain types of cancers, nearly
triple the number of countries (45) that
have introduced the vaccine.
• There were more than 32 million cancer
survivors globally in 2012.
• By 2025,19 million new cancer cases will
be diagnosed based solely on projected
demographic changes.
• The Cancer Atlas, Second Edition is au
thored by more than 60 medical and sub
ject matter experts from six continents.
Together, the contributors have published
more than a thousand papers, articles and
books. Translated editions of the book,
available in Spanish, French, Chinese,
Arabic and Russian, will be launched in
2015.
by Ashley Oglesby
ashley@dekalbchamp.com
Gov. Nathan Deal recently
released the findings from the
High Demand Career Initia
tive, launched in January 2014
by Deal and led by the Georgia
Department of Economic De
velopment, University System
of Georgia (USG) and the
Technical College System of
Georgia (TCSG) to address
Georgia’s workforce needs.
The report highlights over
all trends, high-demand careers
and skills, challenges, recom
mendations and what Georgia
businesses anticipate they will
need in five to 10 years.
“Throughout my adminis
tration, I’ve made it a top prior
ity to promote Georgia’s high-
quality, highly skilled workforce
infrastructure,” Deal said.
He added, “This report rep
resents a long-term collabora
tive commitment to ensure that
all Georgia companies have the
support they need to be com
petitive in the global market
place. I am confident that the
expertise provided by education
and private-sector industry
leaders will boost our state’s
economy and maintain Geor
gia’s status as the No. 1 place in
the nation to do business.”
The High Demand Career
Initiative focused on the future
needs of strategic industries in
Georgia.
More than 80 leaders and
businesses of these private-
sector industries participated in
the 13 listening sessions across
the state.
A key trend and topic
expressed by many of the par
ticipants included the value of
internships and co-op programs
as a method of gaining access to
and training future employees,
as some companies anticipate
the retirement of a large per
centage of their current staff in
the coming years. Many par
ticipants also emphasized the
importance of cultivating soft
skills in younger employees and
expressed a desire to hire more
veterans.
Employers reported that
STEM (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics)
career fields need to be intro
duced to students at a younger
age as a key part of their school
curriculum and noted that part
nerships with local boards of
education, TCSG and USG have
been very productive.
“One of Georgia’s greatest
economic development assets
is our reliable workforce,” said
state economic development
Commissioner Chris Carr.
“The High Demand Career Ini
tiative gives us a unique oppor
tunity to anticipate the needs of
our existing industries in order
to prepare Georgia students for
the high demand jobs that will
be available in five to 10 years,”
he said.