Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Linnea Windel
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2022-24
Linnea Windel, president and CEO of VNA Health Care, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: May 19, 2022
Location: Phone interview conducted in the ALPLM’s recording studio
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Phil Pogue, ALPLM volunteer
Total Time: 1:18 / 1.3 hrs.
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on June 16, 2022.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2022 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Linnea Windel, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2022-24
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: Linnea Windel was born in Waukegan, Illinois, in 1963. She grew up in Hinckley, Illinois, and attended Hinckley-Big Rock High School. There she participated in school plays as well as pom squad. Windel attended Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Nursing in 1985. After college, Windel worked at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boston before returning to northern Illinois to begin working for VNA Health Care. Windel has held a variety of positions at VNA. She has served as a home care staff nurse, home care intake nurse, home care supervisor, Clinical Services Director, Vice President of Clinical Services, Chief Operating Officer, and in 1999, she was promoted to President and CEO. Linnea earned a Master’s in Nursing from Aurora University in 1996. She is a graduate of Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows program and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. At the time of the interview, she was serving on the DuPage Health Coalition Board; the Kane County Health Advisory Committee; and the Home Health, Home Services and Home Nursing Advisory Board of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Throughout the interview Windel discusses the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to a health care system serving over 74,000 unduplicated patients, many who are coming from Medicaid. Windel also highlighted the impact on the two school-based health centers serving East Aurora and Bolingbrook High Schools operated by VNA. She describes the adjustments required in March 2020 when COVID-19 mitigations began, including the first shut-down. Windel details the way VNA pivoted as they became a site for mass testing and vaccination. Windel outlines the way VNA dealt with the pandemic’s impact on their services, staffing, safety protocol, additional funding sources to support loss of patient revenue, relationships with county health departments and providers. The lingering challenges of the pandemic’s effect on mental health was especially prevalent. Windel concludes by looking to the future in the case of another pandemic as well as describing the personal impact of the pandemic on her life.
Subject Headings/Key Words: Tumultuous 2020; Tumultuous 2020 oral history; VNA Health Care; Aurora, Illinois; Chicago suburbs; nursing; COVID-19; healthcare; pandemic; Linnea Windel
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
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