Editor’s Note: The McKnight’s Senior Living Daily Briefing and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Daily Update e-newsletters are profiling each of the McKnight’s 2019 Women of Distinction in July and first couple days of August. For more coverage, visit the McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News websites and read the August print edition of McKnight’s Senior Living and July print edition of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
When Scarlet Gardner isn’t working at Willow Ridge Rehabilitation, she can be found giving back to her community.
She delivers Meals on Wheels to older adults in the Raleigh, NC area, is a bingo volunteer at local senior centers, provides long-term care at the nearby veterans hospital, serves on the local Lions Club (she’s been secretary and vice president), and holds back-to-school events, food drives, fundraisers, and recognition events.
She also helps the High Country Caregivers Foundation hold fundraisers for a family caregiver respite program. All while caring for her four children and working full time.
Gardner’s career has shifted from nursing into a more administrative role in recent years. She began as a medication and wound nurse at Roan Highlands Nursing Center and then became a charge nurse at Mountain Family Medicine before switching to the administration side. She previously worked at Life Care Centers of America as an admissions coordinator and SAVA Senior Care as director of marketing and admissions and now is director of admissions and marketing at Willow Ridge.
Gardner has earned numerous awards throughout her career. While at Life Care Centers of America, for example, she was commended for “going the extra mile” for going out to a patient’s home and feeding her cat while the woman was in rehabilitative care. She also received a vice president’s award while at SAVA Senior Care, celebrating business growth in two consecutive years.
McKnight’s Women of Distinction is a joint program of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program’s exclusive Platinum sponsor is PointClickCare.
