Hello, I am Mary Ann Coleman, North Central Regional (NCR) Director. The NCR encompasses North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin. Many thanks to Dawn Harl for all her energy supporting the NCR as the immediate past Regional Director.
I truly hope to meet the needs and expectations of all the SAFN members in the NCR. Please let me know how I can do that.
I retired from the USAF after 24 years on Active Duty. I loved my time in the USAF. It was full of many challenges and varied experiences. Newly married & with newborn twins, Jacob & Joanna, in my 20th year of active duty, I wanted to return to family in St. Louis. I was assigned as Chief, Long-Range Planning Branch, Air Mobility Command, USAF, Scott AFB, Illinois. An incredible assignment to experience the missions of Air Mobility Command & Joint Forces Transportation Command (TRASCOM). Knowing I wanted to return to pursue Continuous Improvement in the hospital setting, I transferred to 375th Medical Center as the Quality Manager. Loving my new family and loving the Leadership Team, I closed out my career on one more Air Force Nurse Corps high note.
Our Outreach Coordinator is Shirley Black. As the Outreach person, Shirley contacts the members in our region who identify themselves as experiencing changes in medical/physical or life events for themselves or their significant others. The list of members on Outreach is posted on the SAFN website and on a monthly email message to all members of the Society. Our members may simply request cards or prayers during a difficult time in their lives.
In October 2024, I joined the Nightengale Chapter of the NCR for a great lunch at Eckert Orchards in Belleville, IL. I shared updates and we brainstormed ways to bring SAFN into the spotlight in the Metropolitan St. Louis Area. Some ideas were to connect with the 375th Medical Group or Aeromedical Evacuation Group at Scott AFB or the VA St. Louis Health Care System. The next Nightengale Chapter Get Together will be July 2025 - date TBD.
The 20th Biennial SAFN National Reunion will be held in Warwick, Rhode Island 13-17 October for the land based portion. The venue for the Reunion is the Crowne Plaza Providence Warwick Airport hotel which is conveniently located about 3 miles from Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport. There is an optional cruise sailing from Boston on 17 October for a week up the New England and Canadian coastlines to view fall colors.
You can contact me any time at my email: northcentraldirector@safn.org.
