At AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, we are inspired every day by the women who dedicate their lives to delivering healthcare worldwide and #BreaktheBias for equity, inclusion and diversity. As AMI continues to celebrate Women’s History Month and women making history, we salute our female employees who are clearing the path for future generations.
Today, we applaud Kay Howard, Team Lead in AMI Aruba. From working as a street paramedic in Houston, Texas to overseeing the country’s paramedics and political advisers for Operation Iraqi Freedom, she has worked, lived, and traveled to many parts of the world. Now, Kay is AMI Aruba’s most senior Team Lead thanks to her dynamic work ethic, team building, and community spirit.
The call to join AMI came suddenly in December 2020 and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Kay and her spouse had recently begun to rebuild their lives after layoffs with two major oil and gas companies. When told that she would be the 5th Team Lead in Aruba, she realized she needed AMI as much as they needed her.
Kay is a wife, mom, grandmother, paramedic, and the longest-lasting Team Lead in Aruba. She brings a variety of experiences to AMI including clinical skills, management of assets, and facilitating relationships between diverse groups of people. Supporting the needs of Aruba during the COVID-19 surge, Kay was also the keystone liaison between multiple vital groups including the Dutch, local government, AMI, vendors, and key stakeholders at the only hospital in Aruba, Horacio Oduber Hospital (HOH.) She orchestrated five hotel moves for the entire team, successfully navigated all client deliverables during five COVID surges/outbreaks and multiple overall team composition increases and decreases. Kay also assisted AMI team members from Sint Maarten and Curacao relocating to Aruba to assist during a COVID-19 spike.
Her leadership style varies from those that have gone before her. “If my team is kept strong, I will always be strong,” declares Kay. With team-building events such as family dinner nights, wreath making, team photoshoot/edits, International Women’s Day activities, Kay breeds a strong sense of community, inclusivity and respect on her team. She reduced team turnover and changed the dynamic through supporting unity and inclusivity, a two-way trust, compassion and understanding, positive communication, and respect.
Illustration by Kay Howard.
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Kay designed a t-shirt for her team featuring all the countries of anyone who has worked for AMI in Aruba. Whether fostering relationships with her team or the client, she approaches her day with passion. In her fifteen months in Aruba, Kay is not just a “boss” but a true leader that all departing team members want to work with again in the future.
Today, Kay Howard continues to power on as an active community member, supporting local runs and marathons as well as volunteering at local homeless shelters and animal shelters. She is currently pursuing some educational goals and hopes to build a long career with AMI.
Kay Howard (center) celebrates International Women’s Day with the Aruba team.
