Diana Vargas, Supply Chain Coordinator, PPE Inventory Management & Distribution

“I love to interact with people and to be of service.”

After COVID-19 burst on the scene and VNSNY’s office staff transitioned to working remotely, Diana had only been working from home for two weeks when she heard that volunteers were needed to hand out personal protective equipment, or PPE. “I didn’t even know what that was at first, but I was eager to help,” she says. “I love to interact with people and to be of service. I was also having a conniption because I was home-schooling my 10-year-old and couldn’t handle fractions. So it was good timing!”

Her new role was also an excellent fit. Before long, with the help of a team she wound up managing, Diana had completely reorganized VNSNY’s PPE supply rooms, optimized the inventory, and set up schedules to make the best use of staffers’ time, all while making ongoing daily improvements to streamline the PPE processes. “My official job is Supply Chain Coordinator, but in my volunteer role, people started referring to me as the PPE supervisor,” she recalls. “I was leading a team of managers, including people with master’s degrees. It’s been really empowering and taught me a lot, including the discovery that I could learn—and teach!”

Diana sees her work as the continuation of a VNSNY tradition. “I feel like I’m following in Lillian Wald’s footsteps, helping the underserved,” she says. “At VNSNY, we were last in line in terms of receiving PPE. We had to beg and plead and seek out donations to get protective equipment for our clinicians and our home health aides. It’s been exhausting, but I gained the kind of experience you don’t get in textbooks. Besides learning customer-service and networking skills, I’ve improved my Excel skills… and even my math!”