6 minute read
Delivering the goods
Nicki Kellogg ’14 uses CPR experience to save life of FedEX coworker
After three days without news, Nicki Kellogg ’14 was anticipating the worst but felt relief when her boss confirmed that the colleague whom she had performed CPR on days prior was recuperating after a heart attack.
“It took a long time for me to believe them. He survived, and it was the best ending I could hope for, but it was an emotional roller coaster of a week,” she said.
In November, Kellogg helped an unresponsive colleague while on the job at a FedEx warehouse, where she is an operations manager for FedEx Ground in Zelienople – a suburb of Pittsburgh.
She was 30 minutes into a typical shift when a co-worker rushed to find her to tell her that a package handler had collapsed in the trailer he was unloading. Kellogg was used to helping people experiencing heat exhaustion and blood sugar dips, but this scenario was different.
“I [was] in panic mode at this point and tapping him and shaking him,” she said. “I didn’t feel a pulse.” Kellogg per-
formed CPR before another person brought her a portable automated external defibrillator. She performed four rounds of defibrillation before an ambulance arrived and whisked the package handler off to the hospital.
Performing CPR can be a traumatic experience, but for Kellogg, the scenario served as a reminder: “Pay attention to people in your surroundings, including their mental health and physical health. This experience made me care even more about people in my life.”
As a manager at FedEx, Kellogg had to learn CPR, but she also had been trained when she worked as a probation officer and was in the police academy.
Kellogg grew up in New York state near Bradford and was introduced to Pitt-Bradford during a field trip with a technical program that she took part in during high school.
As a student, Kellogg was a resident adviser, a speaker during Coming Out for Equality Day, and a Vira I. Heinz Program scholar, which enabled her to study gender, sexuality, and human trafficking abroad for the first time in Copenhagen.
She graduated from the university in 2014 with a major in criminal justice and a minor in women’s studies and had intended to become a police officer. However, after working as a probation officer, attending the police academy, and getting married, Kellogg decided to change her career path.
“FedEx landed in my life because my wife got a job in Grove City (Pa.). We had to move, and I had to find a job immediately,” she said.
Kellogg now oversees more than 40 employees on any given day and logs about 13 miles on her Fitbit each shift. “I’ve had leadership roles since high school, but this is the first one that I feel like a leader and feel motivated,” she said.
Kellogg’s responsiveness and life-saving actions earned her the FedEx Humanitarian Award.
“I would like to keep moving up in FedEx and finish my master’s and become a senior manager,” she said. Kellogg also plans to continue to give back to the Pitt-Bradford student body, which enabled her to be where she is today.
“Pitt-Bradford gave a lot to me. So anytime I can [give back], I’ll take it.”
