Lisa King ’08, MSN ’14, shares a laugh with nursing students beginning their clinicals at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community.
Lisa King was deeply invested in EMU before she even arrived on campus. King’s parents, Dave King ’76 and Debra Glick King ’77, MBA ’12, were educated at EMU; her older brother, Derek ’03, had just graduated from the university; and her brother Ryan ’07 was a sophomore.
In 2004, she entered EMU with 12 of her former classmates from Lancaster Mennonite High School. While following in this cultural and family legacy, she was intent upon establishing her own identity, and requested an unfamiliar roommate.
Enter Sarah Jones ’08: a Toronto native, pre-med student, and King’s field hockey teammate. The pair would live together for the rest of their college years, graduating together in 2008. Despite their 400-mile separation, the two friends periodically take trips together. (After EMU, Jones earned a graduate degree in biology, focusing on neuroscience, from York University. She is now an embryologist living in Ontario.)
“She will definitely be a lifelong friend,” says King. “There has always been this level of understanding between us through the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
Through this friendship, King joined other social circles. “I was an honorary member of the Canadian student Thanksgiving!” she jokes.
During King’s sophomore year, her parents moved to Harrisonburg when her father became EMU’s director of athletics. Her mother is now the general manager of three adjacent charitable enterprises run by Mennonite Central Committee: Gift & Thrift, Booksavers of Virginia and Artisan’s Hope.
King, however, returned to Lancaster after graduation, working as a nurse at Lancaster General Hospital and coaching field hockey at LMS. Her ties to EMU, however, were tugged after classmate Matthew Garber ’08 drowned in Costa Rica. An endowed scholarship fund was established in his name for EMU students pursuing music or nursing, and King began contributing. She also helped rally class members to donate. “To me, that was investing in God’s work,” King says.
At Lancaster General, King was first a cardiac and vascular surgery nurse, serving in several leadership roles before moving to the labor and delivery wing. She participated in a nurse manager residency program, and later became the nurse manager of the cardiac arrhythmia and electrophysiology unit – overseeing 35 employees and chairing a quality improvement initiative. Shortly before leaving LGH, she supervised another 40 employees as an interim manager in the cardiothoracic surgery unit.
Despite leading teams of nurses and staff members, serving on various councils, and working 50- to 60-hour weeks, “my goal was not to continue to move up the executive chain,” says King. “I am a nurse at heart.” A close friend pointed out that the rigorous workload, the nature of administrative work, involvement in field hockey as a coach and player, and sleep deprivation were taking a toll.
“Relationships are important to me,” says King, adding that hospital management did not provide the right avenue for this value.
King checks in with students on their first day of clinicals at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community.
She eventually turned down a management position at the University of Virginia hospital, put her Lancaster house on the market, and moved to Harrisonburg in May 2015. Two weeks later, she was teaching summer courses at EMU and in the fall, became a full-time member of the nursing department.
Making the transition from practitioner to nursing educator was “a missional decision,” says King. In part, her choice stems from the desire to “help create nurses that can be change agents in this healthcare environment, which is so much more challenging than it ever has been.” Just as important, however, is a work environment filled with authenticity and the presence of God. With the career change, “my philanthropy looks different than it did before,” she says. “I have been given the blessing of time.”
She continues to support EMU and friends in Mennonite missions financially, but also volunteers with the field hockey team and on a farm belonging to Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. She strives to be an available resource and friend to students. Her relationships are a support network, a source of energy, and an outlet for King’s innately giving character. Moreover, says King, those relationships are “part of my mission.”