Judi Boyko, Butler County Administrator
What do you do in your role?
I oversee and administer through a team of talented public servants, the programmatic and operational functions and services of the Butler County Board of Commissioners' departments.
Tell us about your family, hobbies or community involvement.
I am an avid reader and runner who loves her husband and four cats dearly. My husband is a great man whose patience and wisdom grounds me and nourishes my soul to dig deeper.
What is something challenging about your job?
What is challenging is actually what motivates me the most and that is the depth and scope of the complexity of the issues and varying interests of the stakeholders. Facing a problem with multiple interests and varying objectives to achieve is what inspires me to lean in and work hard to develop solutions which advance the greater good and public interest.
What’s something you’ve learned on your journey in your role?
Talk less; listen more. A lesson I am still learning.
What inspires you?
Random acts of kindness which we see every day if we look for it.
What life lesson could you impart to our readers?
Be bold, but with compassion and kindness.
Kayla Bourgeois, Emergency Department Registered Nurse at West Chester Hospital
What do you do in your role?
Any given shift, I spend most of my time triaging patients, assessing them, assisting doctors and getting labs. I’m figuring out what is going on, why they are there and what we can do to treat them.
What is something challenging about your job?
I’d say the thing that is most challenging is also the reason why I wanted to work in the ER. And that’s to be with people at their worst moments and to try to make it better.
What medical advancement do you most want to see in your lifetime?
Affordable health care and more affordable medications. I would also love to see if we could determine what causes Alzheimer’s and if we could slow it down or reverse it.
What life lesson could you impart to our readers?
I think the biggest lesson truly is just that you’re here for a good time not a long time. So live your life, tell people you love them, do what makes you happy, because you don’t know what will happen tomorrow.
What do you most want people to know about your occupation that they might not already?
Violence among healthcare workers is really rising whether that’s verbal assault, or physical assault and people don’t realize that. Just remember that everyone you interact with is human too. And none of us know what kind of day the other person is having, so just treat everyone with kindness.
Aideen Briggs, Principal and CEO of Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School
What do you do in your role?
I’m part of the team of people who work to fulfill the mission of the school and execute its vision. Which means on a day-to-day basis I’m with students, observing faculty, also leading faculty in professional development. I deal with discipline on a daily basis and I’m a member of all the committees.
What’s something particularly rewarding about your job?
The students! It’s rewarding to see them learning, how happy they are and how much they love school…it’s truly amazing. They’re very kind, bright and thoughtful.
What’s something you’ve learned on your journey within your role?
I’ve learned I’m not alone and that I have a lot of help and support here if I reach out for it. The faculty and parents are truly wonderful. Mr. Rogers always said to look for the helpers, and it’s easy to find them here at Mother Teresa.
What life lesson could you impart to our readers?
We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can control our responses. And God is so good that he can make good come out of bad.
How do you stay calm and care for yourself during our current public health crisis?
I take a lot of deep breaths, take one day at a time and pray.
Dr. Lisa Mannix, Physician, Butler County Coroner
What do you do in your role?
The Butler County Coroner's Office provides accurate, thorough and efficient medicolegal investigations related to violent, suspicious, unusual or sudden deaths that occur in the county. I am fortunate to have an amazing staff who assist me in these duties.
What is something challenging about your job?
Every day my staff and I interact with someone who has unexpectedly lost a loved one.
What's something particularly rewarding about your job?
It’s rewarding when my staff and I are able to provide closure for families when they’ve lost a loved one.
What’s something you’ve learned on your journey in your role?
As a physician caring for patients and families, I must provide them dignity and respect as well as compassionate and truthful advice and answers.
Who is someone who inspires you?
Ordinary people who do kind and generous deeds for other people inspire me.
What life lesson could you impart to our readers?
Say “Yes!” Try new things. You never know where an opportunity may lead.
What advice do you have for staying calm and caring for yourself during our current public health crisis?
Stay healthy! Be kind to yourself and others. We will get through this together.
Kathleen Adams, Commercial Litigator with a Specialty in Family Law With Lyons & Lyons Law Firm
Tell me what you do in your role.
I work in divorces, adoptions, grandparents’ rights, and more. I feel it’s a difficult time in people’s lives, but I can help transition them from “before” to “after,” that’s the way I think about it. I wanted to give the benefit of my experience and get them into a better place. I help people transition to their new normal.
What is most rewarding about your work?
Thinking that I’m helping people through one of the most difficult times in their lives. It’s also one of the most challenging parts of my work.
Who is someone in your life who inspires you?
My mom. She taught for 40 years in underserved public schools. Because of her, I always keep children at the top of my mind in my work.
Do you have hobbies and interests outside of law?
I play tennis. I like to travel. I’m working to learn my third language, Spanish. I like to cook and garden, as well.
What advice do you have in this uncertain time of the coronavirus outbreak?
Be prepared without hoarding. I want to be prepared, but I don’t want to have so much toilet paper that my neighbor doesn’t have toilet paper!
