Career Paths
Features
From Home Health Aide to Community Nurse: Meet Behavioral Health’s Marie Tisi
November 11, 2025–Marie Tisi was on the 22nd floor of a Brooklyn apartment building when the second tower of the World Trade Center fell on 9/11. She and her patient, on oxygen for COPD, watched out the window as the building collapsed. While the city reeled in shock, Marie stayed with her patient, ensuring that their oxygen levels remained stable, their medication was administered, and they had someone by their side during the unfathomable tragedy. “We are always here for New Yorkers regardless of what is happening,” says Marie. “Blackouts, hurricanes, pandemics. When the towers came down, I and my frontline colleagues were out and about the next day.” That moment crystallizes Marie’s approach to her 25-year career: showing up for her community, whatever the circumstances. Now a Behavioral Health Nurse with our Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) team in Brooklyn, over the years Marie has been integral to a number of community-based
“It Was Always About the Patients”—Mary Dionson, RN, Reflects on Her Remarkable Career
June 17, 2025–In her 34 years with VNS Health, caring for patients in their homes and mentoring other nurses across New York City, Mary Dionson, Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse Manager for Manhattan and Staten Island, has carved a remarkable career, defined by compassion, dedication, and a deep love for nursing. Mary began her nursing career in the Philippines, where she earned her nursing degree. After emigrating to the United States in 1985, she worked for six years at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island, Queens. In 1991, with three young sons and another baby boy on the way, she made the switch to home care nursing and began working for VNS Health in Roosevelt Island as a per diem field nurse—a role that allowed her to balance her career and motherhood. “My schedule wasn’t as rigid as it was at the hospital, which really helped me,” Mary recalls. “It’s also so rewarding
“I Knew I Was in the Right Place”—Rachel Lelia-Schwartz, RN, Retires After 47 Years of Service
June 6, 2025–On June 2, Rachel Lelia-Schwartz, RN, retired from VNS Health’s Compliance Department, closing the chapter on a remarkable 47-year career in nursing, including 39 continuous years with our organization. “I began my VNS Health career in December 1976 as a public health nurse in the East Bronx,” Rachel recalls. “On my first day, I reported to the Central Office in Manhattan and received my assignment to the Bronx office. Listening to the veteran nurses plan their day, I knew that I was in the right place.” Rachel went on to care for a wide range of patients in her role as public health nurse, from mothers and their babies to patients who were recovering from surgery or dealing with chronic illnesses, “Every case reminded me why I became a nurse,” she says. Her Bronx post had another benefit as well, she adds: “That’s where I met my husband, who was
From Escort Translator to Peer Specialist: How Waldina Palacios Found Her Dream Job
April 9, 2024–As a peer specialist with VNS Health’s Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) team, Waldina Palacios provides help to vulnerable, unhoused New Yorkers who are navigating severe mental health challenges. This means meeting them wherever they may be living—in a shelter, a single-room occupancy residence (SRO), a hospital, or on the streets. Over more than two decades, Waldina has held many positions at VNS Health, including escort translator, home health aide, and HHA coordinator. During this time, Waldina also experienced VNS Health as a family member – her grandmother was a patient in the Shirley Goodman and Himan Brown Hospice Residence near East 96th Street. (“The place felt like home,” says Waldina. “So cozy and comfortable. Everyone there gave her such good care.”) Waldina’s current role with the Behavioral Health team, she says, is her dream job. It’s also one she didn’t even know existed until recently. Here, in her own words,
Seeking New Opportunities with RN Tameka McCabe
March 19, 2024–18 years ago, Tameka McCabe joined VNS Health as a fundraiser coordinator on the Development Department team. Today, Tameka is Director of Wound Management for Home Care. How did she go from fundraising to wound management? For starters, Tameka likes to seek out new opportunities. It also helps that she works for an organization that encourages team members to take advantage of career path opportunities. Here, in her own words, is Tameka’s career path story. My First Six Years at VNS Health I started at VNS Health in 2006 as a fundraising coordinator. I’d been doing marketing at an insurance company before that, but I was ready to move to health care, which had always been an interest of mine. When VNS Health hired me to work in in their Development office, I knew I could apply the skills I’d acquired in marketing to fundraising. Over my six years
From HHA to RN: Donna Wilson’s Inspiring Journey
August 15, 2023–When Clinical Care Manager Donna Wilson started working as a home health aide (HHA) at VNS Health, she had a vision that she would one day become a registered nurse (RN). As a child growing up in Guyana, health care became her passion thanks to her paternal grandmother, who was a nurse. Her grandmother would often take Donna with her to work, where she mostly cared for elderly patients. “That’s where my love for the geriatric population began,” says Donna. “That feeling continues today. I have a love for seniors, and the sentiment seems to be mutual.” From HHA to RN Donna served as a teacher and an assistant tax inspector in Guyana prior to moving to the United States in 1989. In the U.S., she worked in insurance and banking before becoming an HHA in Personal Care (then known as Partners in Care). Donna was drawn to the position