Stories That Shape Us

Healthcare is more than prescriptions, procedures and treatment plans. It’s more than hospitals, clinics, cancer centers, pharmacies and labs. Great healthcare is a team effort. It’s people — everyone from physicians and nurses to chaplains and housekeepers — putting patients first and working together to inspire health, wholeness and hope. Adventist Health celebrates the skills and dedication of each person that helps our mission come to life.

Meet seven individuals representing more than 37,000 employees and volunteers at Adventist Health who dispense hope daily in the way of Jesus, providing great healthcare, a better way to live and hope for a better life.

Terry Johnsson
Adventist Health Oregon service area
Vice president for community and mission integration
8 years with Adventist Health

When Terry Johnsson, Adventist Health Oregon service area vice president for community and mission integration, was 15, he and a friend both liked the same girl and that girl worked as a candy striper. “I decided I would go and try to be a candy striper so I could hang out with her,” Johnsson said. “As a result, I became the first male candy striper at an Adventist Health hospital.” He didn’t know it then, but Terry’s story at Adventist Health Portland was just beginning. 

Later in high school, he job shadowed Beulah Stevens in the hospital chaplain’s office. When he returned to Portland in the '90s as a youth pastor, Stevens encouraged him to pursue chaplaincy. At her prompting, when Johnsson went to Loma Linda University to complete a master’s degree, he also did chaplaincy training and became a licensed chaplain. Now Johnsson’s role at Adventist Health is twofold. First, he works to connect the hospitals with resources and partnerships in the community to help patients in need. Second, he ensures spiritual care and mission — including chaplaincy — are integrated throughout the hospitals.

Q: What is your best habit?
JOHNSSON: I love to give gifts. I’m the one in the office making sure everyone’s birthday is celebrated.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
JOHNSSON: My mom. She moved to Oregon from Louisiana in 1948. She met a lady at a bus stop who told her about this place called Portland, Oregon, and that they were hiring people regardless of their color. On faith, Mom went to Oregon leaving Dad with the five kids. Within six months, she had a job, got a car and brought the entire family. My mother is definitely my hero.

Q: How do you unplug after a hard day?
JOHNSSON: Coming home to my wife and our 3-year-old boxer dog, Lucille Ball, brings me back to reality. Lucy brings lots of fun, and she forces me to exercise because I have to walk her. I also enjoy riding motorcycles. I get on my motorcycle on Sundays and hit country roads, and it’s just a beautiful experience.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or podcast?
JOHNSSON: My favorite book is The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I was flunking English class at Portland Adventist Academy, and there was a teacher named Thelma Winters. She saw potential in me. I had to pass the class or I wouldn’t graduate. Winters said, “Terry, I’m going to give you a book to read, and I want you to write a report after every chapter.” That book changed my life.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
JOHNSSON: Never give up. Just keep moving forward.

Q: What do you do when you’re creatively stuck?
JOHNSSON: My leadership style is like King Arthur and the Round Table. If we can’t figure something out, I bring in people, sit around a table, bounce around ideas and say, “We’re not leaving here until we think of a creative way to deal with this.”

Q: What one word describes your experience at Adventist Health?
JOHNSSON: Hope, because that’s what we deliver. The mere fact that a person came to a hospital shows there’s some bit of hope that their situation is going to change.

Q: Do you have a favorite Bible character?
JOHNSSON: Blind Bartimaeus. When everyone was telling him to give up and not bother Jesus, scripture says he cried all the more. Bartimaeus never gave up until he received his blessings.

Q: What motivates you?
JOHNSSON: Remembering that every day of life is a gift. When I work with patients who are dying, when I go through the ICU, even on our worst days, those ICU patients would do anything to change places with you.

Haley Pacholec 
Adventist Health Portland
Interventional cardiology nurse practitioner
8 years with Adventist Health

Haley Pacholec, Adventist Health Portland interventional cardiology nurse practitioner, knows firsthand about heart problems. During college, she had a pacemaker placed after experiencing complete heart block. The electrical signals controlling her heart were disrupted, and her heart rate fell to the 30-beats-per-minute range. Her heart could have stopped completely at any moment. Now, Pacholec’s pacemaker helps her heart’s electrical system work properly.

“When I was in the hospital, I saw how much time nurses spend with patients, and I did a 180 on my major and changed to nursing,” she said. While working in the ICU after nursing school, Pacholec realized she was seeing patients after many things had already gone wrong with their health. “I wanted to focus more on preventing those situations and on improving health and trying to keep people out of the hospital,” she said. Now, as an interventional cardiology nurse practitioner at Adventist Health Portland, Pacholec is giving hope to heart patients she can relate to from personal experience.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
PACHOLEC: My mother. She showed me what being a working mother looks like. She was a great role model as far as finding something you’re passionate about, pursuing it and then balancing that with having a family.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
PACHOLEC: Be patient. When you’re young, there’s this big push to figure out what you want to do and what direction to go. We have more time than we realize at the moment. I didn’t figure out what I wanted to do until I was almost through college. To figure out what you’re passionate about and what you really want to do, just be patient and let things unfold. When you’re in your early 20s, you have a lot more time than you think.

Q: What brought you to Adventist Health?
PACHOLEC: I went to nursing school at Walla Walla University and we did a lot of our clinical rotations in Portland. Doing clinicals here and seeing the hospital and the staff — especially staff members who have been at Adventist Health Portland for many years and still enjoyed working here — pointed me in this direction. Once I came here, I never wanted to leave.

Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?
PACHOLEC: There are a lot of aspects I really enjoy, but I would say getting to see the same patients, establishing professional relationships with them and then helping them manage their conditions over time. I enjoy being able to do a lot of education and deep dive into whatever they have going on and being able to help in as many aspects as I can.

Q: How do you unplug after a hard day?
PACHOLEC: I have a wonderful husband and a German shepherd at home, so I spend time with them and the rest of my family, and I do outdoor activities as well.

Q: What gives you hope?
PACHOLEC: A lot of things. Seeing patients do better over time always gives me hope, especially when it's someone I've seen for a long time, and I have really worked with them. Maybe they’ve had a stent placed and they come back to see me and their symptoms are so much better, and they are just so thankful and have a new outlook on life. Having that perspective of hope is very helpful, especially when you typically are dealing with people who aren’t doing super well.

Treshawna "Tre" Turner
Adventist Health Portland
General manager for environmental services
6 years with Adventist Health

“I never thought I would live to see 21,” said Treshawna "Tre" Turner, Adventist Health Portland general manager for environmental services. “My life hasn’t always been easy, but when I started working and just kept working, I knew I was doing the right thing.” 

Turner now manages a team of 50 people. “Fifty different attitudes, 50 different emotions, 50 different characteristics,” she said. “I always tell my team our differences are what make everyone in the world unique and amazing. There is only one you and only one me.”

Q: What is your best habit?
TURNER: I love hiking and anything peaceful — being outdoors with trees, waterfalls, trails, beaches — anything that brings me a breath of fresh air. I started horseback riding two years ago. It’s one of my favorite things because you get to ride on the beach and smell the fresh air and, depending on the timing, you may catch the sunset.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
TURNER: The biggest influence on my life has been my daughter. I want to show her what a positive, active, working parent is like. The moment I knew I was bringing a little person into this world, I knew I had to make some changes in my life. I knew it was no longer about me but about Za’Niyah. Having my daughter in my life, I know I have someone to live for. I have someone to nurture, to grow with and, most of all, to love. I thank God for our journey together.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
TURNER: You are worthy, worthy of being loved. Don’t let anyone influence you. Hard work really does pay off. Just keep going. God gives His battles to His strongest soldiers.

Q: What brought you to Adventist Health?
TURNER: I love that we can talk about God at Adventist Health and you can be comfortable enough to be you. You can be comfortable enough to acknowledge and speak up when something’s not right. We have an amazing team here at Adventist Health. They support you, and we all try to live up to our mission of living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope.

Q: Do you have an Adventist Health colleague you admire in particular?
TURNER: I admire our president, Kyle King. I don’t just admire him; I have faith in him that he’s going to lead this organization to success. I’ve seen him in action. I’ve spoken to him one-on-one.

He’s the reason I’m in this seat today because he believed in me when I was unsure of myself. He leads an organization of thousands of people, and I’ve never seen him in an uproar. I’ve always seen him handle things with dignity, care and compassion. He loves us and cares for us and goes above and beyond for our organization. I’ve never seen someone in leadership who cares with such respect for others and respect for himself.

Q: What is your favorite part about your job?
TURNER: My favorite part about my job is leading a team of individuals who depend on me and look to me for advice. I also really like giving my patients a clean environment, because a clean environment is a healing environment.

Q: Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
TURNER: Isaiah 54:17. “‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,’ says the Lord.” Even when it’s dark or I feel bad, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. That’s one of my favorite things.

Q: Why do you choose to work in healthcare?
TURNER: I was born to be one of God’s servants. I’m here to take care of His children. We all have a job we were born to do. I feel my calling in this life is to serve others, take care of others, be healing for others, do God’s work and do His mission — which is to never judge but to love His children as He loves us.

Larry Hamilton
Adventist Health Tillamook
Employee health and case manager
41 years with Adventist Health

Larry Hamilton, Adventist Health Tillamook employee health and case manager, is the Swiss Army knife friend you don’t want to leave home without. Whether helping subdue an unruly patient or teaching someone recently diagnosed with diabetes how to use an insulin pen, he is one of those people who always seems to know how to solve a problem. At one point during the pandemic, he administered a COVID-19 vaccine every 3 1/2 minutes for 10 hours straight. His life is full of adventure, and he has all the amazing stories to tell that come with those adventures. He’s the person you want to sit around a campfire with and just talk for hours. And he’s a registered nurse, too.

Q: What is your best habit?
HAMILTON: I enjoy cabinet work, so my habit when I go home from work is to chat with my wife, enjoy dinner and then spend the rest of the evening in my wood shop.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
HAMILTON: A man in this community named George Hodgin started an organization called Men for Christ. That organization helped expand my religious and spiritual experience. With that group, I’ve worked on building projects in Mexico many times. I’ve also been a member of medical teams around the world including in Honduras, Uganda, Congo, Indonesia, Haiti and Mozambique.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
HAMILTON: Don’t wait until some devastating thing comes along to go on that vacation or do all those other things you want to do. Do it now. God says, “I’ll give you life and I’ll give it to you more abundantly if you’ll just trust in Me.”

Q: What brought you to Adventist Health?
HAMILTON: I was working as a builder and doing odd jobs in the '80s when all building just stopped. We had no money, and my son had just been born. A couple from the Latter-day Saints church in Colorado hired me to work on their farm. One day, the wife said to me, “Larry, pick a college, any college, and we will make sure you graduate.” So my wife and I talked about all the options. My parents had both been nurses, and I thought, why not get a nursing degree. After I graduated as a nurse, we drew a circle on the map of everywhere we could drive a U-Haul truck, and Tillamook was right on the edge.

Q: What do you love about working at Adventist Health?
HAMILTON: I appreciate the culture here. You can share your faith and you can practice your faith. Since becoming a nurse, I’ve never worked anywhere else.

Q: What motivates you?
HAMILTON: I went on a medical mission trip to Mozambique. One day, I met a woman who came in for help with athlete’s foot. I was talking with her and gave her gummy bears, like we did all the patients — so they could taste the sweetness of what it feels like to be a friend of Jesus. When I first met that woman, she didn’t want to hear anything about Jesus, but, by the time we left, she had given her heart to Him. That is the kind of thing that motivates me.

Q: What gives you hope?
HAMILTON: I’ve heard the voice of God enough to know there’s a future beyond this world. My goal is to get out of bed every morning and say, “OK Lord, here I am. Point the way.” And He points the way and takes care of every little detail.

Jasmin Huila Flores
Adventist Health Columbia Gorge
Program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion 
2 years with Adventist Health

For people who've never had healthcare benefits, it can be difficult to navigate the complexity of the healthcare system. What does health insurance cover? What providers can I see? Can I get vision care? Can I get dental care? At the new Adventist Health location in The Dalles, Jasmin Huila Flores, Adventist Health Columbia Gorge program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion, is part of a team helping patients know how to access and use healthcare resources. Her team also works with community partners to implement strategies for addressing community health needs and identify opportunities for access to healthcare for people who haven’t traditionally had options.

Q: What is your best habit?
FLORES: Listening and remembering what people tell me. The small details matter, like a childhood memory or what someone did over the weekend. People are sometimes taken aback that I remember, but when you’re a good listener and when you care about the person, it’s really easy to do.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
FLORES: My dad. He has been a farm worker for more than 30 years in the Columbia Gorge region. When I think about him getting up for work every morning, it makes me feel very dedicated to my job. I want to put quality into what I do, whether at work or outside of work.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
FLORES: Don't sell yourself short. When you have an opportunity, take it and create opportunities for yourself by networking and asking questions. I was the first one who went to college in my family, to a four-year university, and I didn’t even think I would make it. Sometimes I sold myself short. I don’t want people to feel like they’re not good enough to do something or to try something new or have them be their own barrier to doing what they want to do.

Q: What brought you to Adventist Health?
FLORES: I was born and raised in The Dalles. I could see the fear in my community of going to the hospital or emergency room. I wanted to influence change. That’s what brought me here. I wanted to make care more accessible and equitable and help my community navigate our healthcare system.

Q: How do you unplug after a hard day?
FLORES: I talk to my family and parents, and just be around people and talk about random stuff. That helps me not think about a hard day.

Q: Do you have a favorite book or podcast?
FLORES: Lately I’ve been learning about financial literacy. I recommend the book Cultura and Cash by Giovanna Gonzalez.

Q: What do you do when you’re creatively stuck?
FLORES: When you see your parents, specifically your dad, working every day, you don’t realize that taking time off is needed. I’m learning to take time off, even if it is just a day to do whatever I want. It helps because it makes me do something I would normally not do and it refreshes me.

Q: Why do you choose to work in healthcare?
FLORES: There is so much that goes into health care, and sometimes specific populations get missed. I don’t want those populations to be missed. Who will ask the questions that people don’t think about? For example, in our area, we have a lot of people who come from Mexico or South America to work in agriculture. Would they qualify for financial assistance? If not, why not? I get to ask those questions and influence change.

Q: What gives you hope?
FLORES: When I see that my work is fruitful, that gives me hope. Even if it’s small and not to the extent I wish it was, when somebody tells me, “I’m really happy I found you. You’re helping me,” that gives me hope things will be better.

Q: What one word describes your experience at Adventist Health Columbia Gorge?
FLORES: Growth.

Pam Strachan
Adventist Health Tillamook
Mission and spiritual care leader
18 years with Adventist Health

Pam Strachan, Adventist Health Tillamook mission and spiritual care leader, had just completed training to be a respiratory therapist when she felt God calling her to ministry. She left her home in Syracuse, New York, and headed to Andrews University. 

It was after her seminary training that the doors began to open for clinical chaplaincy. An interview with Adventist Health Portland led to an in-person visit. “When I visited Portland, it rained so hard I said, ‘Lord, close this door, but let Your will be done,” she said. Strachan worked in Portland for 14 years and now leads chaplaincy and hospice services for Adventist Health Tillamook.

Q: What is your best habit?
STRACHAN: My best habit is being in the kitchen. I love to take raw materials, put them together and create something delightful and tasty. The kitchen is a happy place for me.

Q: Who has had the biggest influence on your life?
STRACHAN: The biggest influence on my life has been God. I’m in awe every time He brings something to me. Every week I come up with a theme, and this week my theme is “Taller” from the experience of Samuel who grew taller in the presence of God. I’m inspired to grow taller and not just stay where I am.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
STRACHAN: Take it easy, girl. Breathe. Stop rushing. Things will work out.

Q: What do you love about working at Adventist Health?
STRACHAN: The people. It fills my soul to listen to people, to provide space for them to share their story and to be a supportive presence.

Q: How do you unplug after a hard day?
STRACHAN: I have a big dog named PeeNutt and a little dog named Gizmo. I unplug by playing with them. I go in my backyard with them and walk and breathe.

Q: What do you do when you’re creatively stuck?
STRACHAN: When I find myself stuck, I hang out with being stuck — just stop and sit in that space of being stuck. I journal: What’s the challenge here for me? Why am I stuck? Why can’t I get through this? When I write what I’m feeling, I’m able to move through it.

Q: Why do you work in healthcare?
STRACHAN: When God called me to ministry, I didn’t know exactly what He was calling me to. When He guided me to chaplaincy, it started to make sense why He moved me out of respiratory therapy. The calling makes sense now as I look back.

Q: What one word describes your experience at Adventist Health?
STRACHAN: Transformation. I have been transformed by the service I provide people. I have discovered the value in humanity — the God-spark within all of us. I have grown taller mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

Q: What motivates you?
STRACHAN: Hope. Hope for myself and hope for others. No matter how dark things may look or seem, there is always hope. What gives me hope is love — loving people, loving the unlovable, bringing God’s love to people who don’t feel love. I also receive hope from translating that love into a message for myself when at times I don’t feel loved. I am indeed loved — God loves me and He’s the God of my hope.

Adam Lee
Adventist Health Portland
Operations executive
13 years with Adventist Health

From rehabilitation to laboratory services to volunteer staffing to organizational strategy, Adam Lee, Adventist Health Portland operations executive, works to ensure that departments at Adventist Health Portland have what they need to do their jobs well. “There are a million day-to-day things that come up at a hospital,” he said, “things you can’t really predict.” When he isn’t helping manage those unexpected situations, Lee works with his team to provide a clear picture of organizational goals and what needs to happen to be successful. “The way to make strategy successful,” he said, “is to help everybody in the organization understand their part in that strategy. Everyone in the organization needs to understand why our role is so critical to what we do.”

Q: What is your best habit?
LEE: My best habit is regular check-ins with my team, making sure I’m staying connected to the leaders I support so they have what they need and I know when issues start to come up.

Q: What advice would you give your younger self?
LEE: Don’t worry so much about each career choice. Don’t stress about it. Early on we tend to stress about the choices we’re making, like picking a major in college and our first job out of college — or at least I certainly did. You don’t get locked in if you’re excited about what you’re doing. If you work hard and build good relationships, then you get to go wherever you want to go.

Q: What do you love about working at Adventist Health?
LEE: I love the people and the culture. There is a certain culture at Adventist Health Portland — I’ve heard it described as a small-town feel. People know each other. It’s small enough that you feel like you know the people around you, but it’s not so small that you can’t do some really interesting things in healthcare. It’s an easy place to want to be.

Q: Do you have an Adventist Health colleague you admire?
LEE: There is something about Terry Johnsson and the way he builds relationships and gets things done that is so impressive to me. As an introvert, I am amazed at his ability to form connections with the people around him. He’s so great at doing interesting and difficult work while building these deep and meaningful connections.

Q: How do you unplug after a hard day?
LEE: I have a commute, which sometimes is a bad thing, but a lot of days it’s kind of nice to sit and listen to an audiobook or podcast. By the time I get home, I’m ready to hang out with my wife and kids and put work behind me.

Q: What do you do when you’re creatively stuck?
LEE: I usually find it’s best to just step away. Whether that’s just calling it quits for the day or going out and rounding and talking to people or going for a walk, there’s no one answer except for maybe just separating myself from whatever it is I’m stuck on. I don’t try to force myself through it most of the time because that doesn’t usually work for me.

Q: What one word describes your experience working at Adventist Health Portland?
LEE: Fulfilling.

Q: Why do you choose to work in healthcare?
LEE: I feel that every day in some way I’m contributing to helping the community around me. Healthcare is super hard, and there’s something appealing about that to me. I don’t like easy. So it’s that combination of just really hard work but getting to do it for all the right reasons.

Q: What gives you hope?
LEE: When I hear stories and see firsthand patients who have an experience here that is unique to the way we’re providing care and the culture we have here, that gives me hope. It gives me hope knowing that experiences are being created here that are special and unique to the work we’re doing — because it’s healthcare, but also because there is something special here at Adventist Health Portland.