Women's Health

2010 Spirit of Women Award Winners

Kim Petrella

Health Care Hero Award Winner

Kim Petrella, recipient of the Christiana Care Spirit of Women Health Care Hero award, balances a busy life as a mother, wife and health care provider with an extremely active role as a community health advocate.

Petrella is a labor and delivery registered nurse at Christiana Hospital. She serves as a member of the Bereavement Team at Christiana Hospital, providing support and counsel for families who have lost a child during pregnancy or childbirth. Petrella also offers labor and delivery services to family members of Delaware Air National Guard members deployed overseas, counseling and supporting expectant mothers through pregnancy while their husbands are out of the country. She even offers breastfeeding house calls for struggling moms in need.

Petrella devotes her spare time to serving as a community advocate and educator for umbilical-cord-blood donation on behalf of the Brady Kohn Foundation, a Delaware-based nonprofit group. The foundation has a dual mission of educating the public on the potential of stem cells from umbilical-cord blood and funding non-embryonic stem-cell research. A volunteer-driven organization, the foundation relies on the passion and dedication of volunteers like Petrella who act as true advocates in spreading the news about the tremendous advancements of cord-blood collection and research.

Petrella specializes in educating medical professionals, medical and nursing students and high-school students about the importance of saving cord blood. She focuses her energies on empowering parents to save their baby's cord blood versus throwing it away. She's acted as a media contact for Brady Kohn, doing television and newspaper interviews. She also serves as a medical adviser for the Parent's Guide to Cord Blood, providing expectant parents with information about cord-blood stem cells and cord-blood banks. Her efforts were recognized in October of 2007 by an award from the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services as one of the Governor's Outstanding Volunteer Award winners in the state.

Petrella collected medical supplies from the Avon Grove Middle School for TEAM DELAWARE, the team of Delaware medical professionals who traveled to Haiti in response to the devastating earthquake.

A married mother of three, she still finds time to serve as a troop leader for the Girl Scouts of America, as well as volunteer for the Special Olympics and the Hockessin (Delaware) and University of Delaware fire companies.

Stephanie Philips

Community Hero Award Winner

Breast cancer is a devastating disease, but Stephanie Phillips, a breast cancer survivor and the recipient of the Christiana Care Spirit of Women Community Hero award, has embraced its impact on her life and turned it into a positive.

Phillips is a passionate advocate for breast cancer awareness in New Castle County, raising funds and awareness through her Relay for Life team. While the Relay for Life event takes place only once a year, Phillips' fundraising efforts on behalf of her "Score for the Cure" team are a yearlong commitment. This year, her group sold 300 pink tulip bulbs, with proceeds benefitting the American Cancer Society. The bulbs will be planted in a memory garden at Bellevue State Park in Wilmington, in remembrance of those who fought and lost their battle with breast cancer as well as those who have survived.

Phillips is an educator at a middle school in Wilmington, where she has introduced the spirit of charity and giving to her students. Each year, she enlists students to assist in her Race for the Cure fundraising, with a portion of each donation made going toward funding for school programs. Phillips also makes and sells chocolate-covered pretzels each October in honor of breast cancer awareness month, including a card with each pink bag of pretzels asking the buyer to "Remind your loved one to get a mammogram." For four years she has also hosted an annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser in her community, with proceeds benefitting the American Cancer Society.

Phillips is a lifelong fan and season ticket holder for the Philadelphia Eagles and has been asked by the team to develop breast-cancer awareness programs each October. Her passion for the Eagles led to her induction into the Professional Football Ultimate Fan Hall of Fame, an honor that has provided her with an additional platform to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.

Recognizing her positive role in raising awareness of breast cancer across the state, the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition asked Phillips to become a mentor for newly diagnosed patients. The coalition raises awareness of breast-health issues in Delaware through outreach, education and support. Phillips displays a tireless devotion to the cause of breast-cancer awareness and is truly a champion for the goal of finding a cure in her lifetime.

Kera Carter

Young Person Role Model Award Winner

Kera Carter, the recipient of the Christiana Care Spirit of Women Young Person Role Model award, has parlayed her own goal of healthy living into improving the health of her community. A Wilmington resident, she has volunteered for Christiana Care's Center for Community Health since 2009, working with the Camp FRESH and Moving Moms Forward programs.

At Camp FRESH, teens review the food sources in their communities and come up with affordable nutritious alternatives, such as growing vegetables. It's an important message they carry to their friends, schools, churches and government. Camp FRESH students meet from June through August for educational sessions on health, wellness and nutrition. Campers reach out to urban neighborhoods in Wilmington, spreading the word about the importance of healthy food and exercise. They also get their hands dirty working in a community garden and provide fresh produce for people in the city, working at farmer's markets.

Carter stood out as a leader in her Camp FRESH group, helping run three farmer's markets in the city. She gained experience in community organizing and health education and was instrumental in helping build and maintain Wilmington's first urban farm. Carter completed the program with a Serve-Safe certification, which certified her to handle and prepare food in a restaurant setting. She also earned the respect of her peers and the program staff.

Since the conclusion of Camp FRESH, Carter has continued to work with Christiana Care as a community-health advocate, volunteering eight hours a week for Christiana Care's Moving Moms Forward program. Moving Moms Forward offers nutritional education and exercise for new and expectant mothers in Wilmington. The free series includes classes on exercise, weight management and mental wellness. Carter returns community phone calls, organizes mailings, registers community members for classes and creates fun nutritional games for children in attendance at Moving Moms Forward classes.

The youngest of three siblings, Carter graduated with honors from Howard High School of Technology in Wilmington. As a Howard student, she was active in the student chapter of the Business Professionals of America, the Polar Bear Plunge and Chase Leadership Academy (learning life and career skills as well as financial literacy). She will be attending Delaware Technical & Community College in Wilmington for a year before transferring to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she plans to pursue a degree in Computer Sciences or Community Health. She hopes to parlay her degree into a career helping those urban communities.