Emigrating from the Cayman Islands as a young girl, Adella Bodden continued her education in Brooklyn.
After taking a veterinarian tech class at Lincoln High School, she thought she wanted to be a veterinarian, but realized, “I wanted to help people more.”
She says, “Ira Levy, my biology teacher, was very encouraging in making my career choice change.”
After her family relocated to Florida, and she was mid-point in her studies at LIU, she joined the United States Army and completed her nursing studies earning an Army Medical Specialist / Combat Medic Diploma, Army LPN Diploma.
Ms. Bodden was stationed in Florida when she was called to active military duty during Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm. She did a tour from January 1991 to May 1991 — sent to King Kalid Military City, Saudi Arabia — where she cared for injured Iraqi soldiers, children, women and men.
Returning to New York, she received an honorable discharge as a sergeant with the Army Reserve in October 1996.
Ms. Bodden attributes her work internship leader Ms. Hayden and her aunt Winnie Dix, also a nurse, for influencing her career. “I also saw the way they were caring, loving and treated their patients and what a difference their care made in the patients’ lives.”
For 24 and a-half years, Ms. Bodden has been employed as an LPN at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases , working in the areas of adult and pediatric medicine / surgery and presently, working in the ortho neuromuscular pediatric clinic.
Her nominator, co-worker Linda Massiello says, “She is truly devoted to her patients, patient families, her physician partners and all the staff. She remains calm and focused under pressure and exceeds what is asked of her.”
