Suja Thomas
Nurse Administrator and Community Leader
Suja Thomas was born and raised in India. Her parents, who were both high school teachers, had a vision for her to become a college professor. She also wanted to pursue teaching as a career and decided to pursue English Literature in college. However, she frequently found herself caring for the sick and elderly with an empathetic approach. As a result, her passion for healthcare developed. She transitioned to Fr. Muller’s College of Nursing to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Nursing where she was 1 of 33 students selected to attend. Upon graduation she served as an Assistant Lecturer for 7 years teaching BSc Nursing students at the College of Nursing at Manipal. In 1994, she married and migrated to the United States and started her career as a Registered Nurse. She completed her Master’s in Nursing at Russel Sage College in 2012. She also became a certified Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse Specialist and is currently pursuing a post master’s Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program, hoping to graduate in December 2021.
Suja currently works as a nurse administrator at Samuel Stratto VA Medical Center and her past experiences have been more than integral to her current success. She has practiced and managed multiple specialty areas (labor and delivery, cardiopulmonary, medical surgical, and a hemodialysis unit). She has functioned in capacities such as Nurse Supervisor, Education Specialist, BLS Instructor, American Heart Association Regional faculty, Infection Control Nurse, Nurse Manager, and Community Nurse Educator. She also worked as Adjunct faculty at Maria College in Albany, New York.
Her dedication to nursing has not gone unrecognized. In 2015, Suja was promoted to Nurse Executive where she managed several departments such as lab, radiology, pharmacy, respiratory, wound care, dietary, and nursing education. She received a Transformational Leadership Award from St. Peter’s Health Partners, Albany for a safe patient handling project in 2014 where she brought employee injury numbers to zero! She is the recipient of the Clinical Excellence Award known as the Robert Scholar Award. She is the current secretary of National Association of Indian Nurses of America and the founding President of Indian Nurses Association of Albany, NY and is a member of Sigma Theta Tau Delta Pi Chapter and Northeast WOCN Society.
Outside of her professional life, Suja is a committed community volunteer. She has organized and coordinated various health fairs, family and friends CPR sessions, and healthcare webinars.
“Nothing is impossible if you have your heart and mind invested in what you wish to accomplish. Dedication, commitment, compassion and integrity are my work ethics to make the world a better place for everyone! I believe each one of us can make a difference in one way or another.” -Suja Thomas
Watch Suja Thomas’ Nurses You Should Know Video here.
Further Reading
Learn about nursing education in India here.
Donate to organizations to help India during this wave of Covid-19 here.
Learn about the National Association of Indian Nurses in America here.
Sources
The information above was sourced from Suja Thomas.
Learn More
To learn more about inclusion in nursing and be part of the national discussion to address racism in nursing, check out and share the following resources:
Know Your History
- Nursing CLIO to engage with historians and scholars committed to deep work around historical accuracy in healthcare and nursing.
- American Association for the History of Nursing to attend monthly webinars on topics of nursing history, view the calendar here.
Examine Bias
- NurseManifest to attend live zoom sessions with fellow nurses on nursing’s overdue reckoning on racism or to sign their pledge.
- Breaking Bias in Healthcare, an online course created by scientist Anu Gupta, to learn how bias is related to our brain’s neurobiology and can be mitigated with mindfulness.
- Revolutionary Love Learning Hub provides free tools for learners and educators to use love as fuel towards ourselves, our opponents, and to others so that we can embody a world where we see no strangers.
Support & Advocate
- National Coalition for Ethnic Minority Nurse Association to stay engaged with topics relevant to nurses of color.
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