It’s been almost one year since April Venzon joined the team at SHCHD, first as a laboratory technician and now as the Laboratory Manager. As a clinical laboratory scientist, April analyzes blood, urine, or other body specimens in order to support health care providers in the detection, diagnosis and treatments of disease.

Originally from Delaware, April began her college studies by completing a Bachelor’s degree in psychology with the aim of conducting research. After working for a few years in a blood bank, she decided to pursue a second degree that would extend her research capabilities. She went on to the University of Delaware where she completed a second Bachelor’s degree in medical technology (now identified as a Clinical Laboratory Scientists) with a minor in biology. With this new degree, April worked in six hospitals ranging from 16 to 300 beds, all of them part of larger hospital systems in or around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where the commute was as long as three to four hours during rush hour.

In 2014, April Venzon and her partner Jimmy Bell, who also works at SHCHD, decided they needed something different and through their search, they discovered job opportunities in Garberville. “When I looked up Garberville on the map, it appeared to be straight across the country from Delaware but then I looked up the weather and I could tell it would be really different.” Once at SHCHD, April knew she had made the right decision, “I really enjoy it here: working with the instruments and testing, getting to move around in the lab, I get to see the nurses and talk to them, we are a team.”

Along with her work in the lab, April has a passion for prevention and wellness. She thinks about wellness likes she thinks about the instruments she uses and maintains in the lab, “I need to take care of all my instruments, they get cleaned, they get checked, and they get repaired when needed.” She compares this to wellness and the need for all of us to be more aware of our own health, even when we are healthy.

April Venzon continues to enjoy Garberville, the place she now calls home: “It amazes me how the beaches, trails, and outdoor areas are so much more natural here. It’s so nice to be able to enjoy the natural scenery without all of the paved and manicured areas. And the woods, there is nothing that can top the trees here.”

SHCHD, Staff writer