By Haley Jones, Director of Marketing and Development
Memorial Health System (MHS) is happy to announce that Rachel Camese, has filled the position as Director of the Environmental Services Department.
Rachel was born and raised in Salina, Kansas. A family of medical professionals surrounds Rachel. Both her mom and sisters are nurses and her dad was the EMT Director at the Salina Fire Department. It is fitting that the career road she has traveled finally brought her to the healthcare world as well.
Rachel’s career in “cleaning” was not something she chose from a life-long dream, but one that she decided upon under circumstances that forced her to come up with a plan that would fit her family after her husband became sick. “I had to find a career that would balance me being able to get my husband to doctors’ appointments and take care of him when he needed it, plus make sure my kid was taken care of, so I started a cleaning business.” Rachel did this for eight years. Being a business owner is a lot of work. After the loss of her husband five years ago, and her son being of driving age, she decided that she could make a change, and lessen her workload, by stepping away from the business and allowing her business partner to be the sole owner.
Rachel made a move from business owner to the City of Salina Water Department where she was working in the customer accounting office. While there, she helped to implement their new system. It was not long before Rachel realized she missed the work she did with her cleaning business, but she didn’t necessarily want to be cleaning all day. She had a desire to be a leader, and right about that time is when she happened to find a position listed at Memorial Health System that would allow her to be a leader of a department where she could use her cleaning expertise!
When Rachel is not working, her world revolves around her son who is almost 6 foot 5 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds. If you are thinking football player, you guessed right! “My kid is a beast and he is really good at football. He eats me out of house and home,” she chuckles. “I spend all of my extra time supporting my son to get to the next level.” Rachel graduated from Salina South, but her son attends Salina Central. “Now I’m a Central girl, everything I own is Central.”
The Environmental Services Department at MHS has many areas to keep clean, and healthcare requires a different level of cleaning. Rachel is not the kind of leader who will ask her team to do something she is unwilling to do herself. “I am always ready to jump in and help”, she said. “I believe in working as a team.” Rachel is willing and eager to learn from her staff, as healthcare is a new area of cleaning for her, but her leadership and experience will no doubt be a great asset to the department and MHS is happy to have her!