Nurse Awarded Anne Kiekhofer Scholarship

LaDonna Davis remembers the moment she decided to become a nurse. As a young girl, she watched as her mom had a seizure for the very first time. 

LaDonna didn’t know how to help, so she ran to her next door neighbor’s house. The neighbor, an Army veteran, had just returned home from deployment. He jumped right in and knew exactly what to do, LaDonna said. He ended up saving her mom’s life that day.

That’s the moment LaDonna, 44, clinic supervisor at Vliet, knew she wanted to be able to help people. She’s been helping people in some form or fashion since joining Community Care in 2009.

In April, LaDonna learned that she was the recipient of the Anne Kiekhofer Scholarship. The $2,600, one-time scholarship was created to honor Anne, a registered nurse, who passed away in April 2023. Anne was a member of Community Care’s Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) and served as a member representative on the board of directors.

Community Care worked with Anne’s husband, Tom, to offer the scholarship to an employee who working toward becoming a registered nurse. The scholarship was funded through the generosity of Anne’s family and friends.  

LaDonna has spent almost her entire career at Community Care furthering her education. After starting as a certified nursing assistant (CAN) at Prospect, LaDonna worked her way up to licensed practical nurse (LPN) with an associate’s degree. With some encouragement, LaDonna decided to pursue her bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree.

“I have had many different roles at Community Care. You definitely can work your way up,” LaDonna said. “They have been supportive of my education throughout the years.”

While working as an RN case manager at Our Lady of Angels (OLA) convent, LaDonna decided to pursue her nurse practitioner (NP) license.

LaDonna credits two Community Care colleagues, Kerri Livermore, program manager at OLA, and Lora Moodie, NP at OLA, for motivating her to continue on her career path.

“They are people I look up to and they inspired me,” LaDonna said.

For LaDonna, the past several months have been a whirlwind. After completing her classwork in April, LaDonna sat for her boards a few weeks later and passed them all. Her graduation from Herzing University was June 1. Now, she looks back in amazement, considering she did this all while working full time.

“It was very intense. It was extremely hard. I still don’t know how I did it,” LaDonna said. “It was a miracle. I look and say, ‘what was I thinking?’”

While she was busy with school, LaDonna managed to complete the scholarship application on the very last day of the deadline. It took a while before she heard anything and at one point she figured the scholarship had gone to another employee.

“When I got the call I was really shocked, but I was very excited and thankful,” said LaDonna, who has also utilized Community Care’s tuition reimbursement benefit. “It means the world to me. School is expensive. It was amazing it was simply an honor.”