Emma Kline joined the Good Samaritan Society-Ambassador team five years ago as the Clinical Dietician and her ambition, creativity and positive outlook were quickly noticed by the entire team and made her a highly sought after commodity. Throughout her time at Ambassador, she has stepped up to the plate numerous times and her strong leadership skills have been utilized time and time again.
Emma is an exemplary team member and always offer her support and expertise to her peers whether it involves serving on a committee, leading yoga classes for our residents, or providing educational seminars on healthy eating choices to staff & residents. Her teamwork, dedication, responsibility, and attitude—coupled with her commitment to the betterment of our organization—have led to her new role as Director of Food Services. In the short time of her occupying this position, she has flourished and the team has never performed better.
Emma is always willing to lend a helping hand to other departments whenever needed, often before even being asked. She is highly motivated to continue learning and advancing her skills to best serve our residents and staff. When we started our Integrative Therapy program 4 years ago, Emma was eager to get involved to help promote wellness amongst our staff and residents. She went through a 200-hour yoga teacher training program and an additional 50 hour adaptive yoga training with the Integrative Therapy program lead to create a yoga program for our residents and staff. Although leading activities is not expected of her, Emma leads our residents in yoga classes weekly in addition to teaching at our neighboring assisted living community. She has also offered free lunch time yoga classes to our staff as a quick mindfulness break to encourage self-care and promote physical activity.
Emma always remains open-minded when a resident or staff request something from her. She is realistic and creative in coming up with solutions and has rarely been unable to meet someone’s need. An example of providing quality customer service to our residents was when our residents were expressing how much they wished they could have fried eggs made to order. While other nay-sayers shot down this idea saying it was not possible, Emma sought out to find a solution. She tried out more than six different pans to see how we could make several fried eggs for our residents while still abiding by regulations of not using oil to cook on the units. Her tireless efforts resulted in the successful implementation of our “Fried-Egg Friday” special for a year. The residents were so appreciative of her efforts and have worked with her to come up with other fun ways to enjoy their favorite treats.
Since taking over as the Director of Food Services, Emma’s clear communication style has improved the functioning of the dietary team immensely. She has implemented monthly department meetings which has increased the general team cohesion and communication. When the position became available, every single member of the dietary team requested for her to have the position because of the consistency and excellent managerial skills they had come to rely on from her.
To say her team loves working for her would be an understatement. They consistently rave about her unrelenting support and ability to stay positive and keep the team motivated. Emma always clearly explains expectations to ensure all team members are on the same page, and able to perform their duties efficiently.