Janna Gardner, Healing Hands Ministries
From school nurse to Executive Director of a growing non-profit health care clinic, based right here in Lake Highlands, Janna is also a visionary.
Together with her husband Brent, the couple has been in Lake Highlands 17 of their 21 married years. The couple's two sons, Trent and Carter, round out the Gardener clan.
It was in 2005 that, together with like-minded volunteers, she conceived the idea of a clinic that would reach out to children and families in great need of medical care, and that field is an extremely familiar one for Janna.
"My first job, in fact, was as a candy striper at Hillcrest Hospital when I was 13," she says. "And I’ve never left the industry."
Following 10 years as a nurse in management at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, Janna was promoted and began managing all the employee health clinics for the entire Texas Health Resources system.
"In 1997 a merger with the Harris Hospital system, coupled with arrival of my second child, made me rethink my priorities," she explains.
Consulting kept her busy for the next several years as she worked with companies inlcuding MBNA, Exxon and Target.
"The position I held at Target really opened my eyes to how many people didn’t understand how to use their benefits. They were utilizing the ER for their health care, so I felt compelled to figure out a way to help people use their benefits more effectively."
It was following a mission trip to Alaska in 2004 that Janna's husband suggested she consider a position as a school nurse. When an opportunity at Stultz Road Elementary opened up, she jumped on it. It was there that she witnessed firsthand the needs of children in our community.
"I saw the need of the children and their families, those who didn't have access to health or dental care. God put a burden on my heart that I just couldn’t run from."
"As a result of working in several health care systems throughout my career, I was able to reach out to like minded people, and those relationships were critical to getting Healing Hands Ministries off the ground."
Healing Hands Ministires (HHM) is a non-profit medical and dental clinic, that through a network of volunteer doctors and dentists, offers health care services to those who otherwise can’t afford it.
Janna brought the right people together, sat down with them and got to work.
"We began researching the demographic data from the Richardson Independent School District, and we got a good pulse of the challenges facing RISD with respect to the overall well being of the children from a health care perspective."
Janna says that the data showed what many of us already know. We are community with a rich diversity of people.
"The socio-economic make-up is just as diverse with both an affluent enclave, as well as one of the largest populations of Section 8 housing in the city."
"When we opened the doors to the clinic on March 13th in 2007, we had four patients. Today, we now treat somewhere around 1,900 patients, which will probably generate 7,500 office visits this year."
The HHM staff is comprised of one part-time, paid physician, 40 physician volunteers, 11 volunteer dentists, 50 nurses and 13 hygienists.
"And we couldn’t have done it without the help of countless volunteers and organizations who stepped up," adds Janna.
Gaston Oaks Baptist, Northpark Presbyterian and the Wilshire Baptist churches all pitched in – in a big way.
