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TEACHING
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Nancy D. Bird P’02,’03: Working to create a holistically well campus community
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Rarely are dental appointments life-changing.
One day in 1987 proved to be an exception, however – not for the
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patient, but for the dentist’s wife.
Dr. Robert Bird and his wife Nancy had been living in Sharon, CT, for two years when a patient of his who was also a member of the Hotchkiss community mentioned that the School was hiring for a new position: director of health services. Dr. Bird, said Nancy, came home and declared that the job “had her name written all over it.” While that would bear out to be true, Nancy faced considerations many women her age did in the mid-1980s: she had recently moved to a new town, her husband was establishing his career, and she had two very young children at home. What would a job as director of health services look like? Enter fellow pioneering Hotchkiss woman Marilyn “Sam” Coughlin, the then-dean of faculty. Nancy says that, along with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, “I had done hospital management, organizational management [which included supervising medical services for the New York City Marathon], and communications, but wasn’t familiar with boarding school life and all it entailed. So I gave Sam a call to find out more about the position.” “It was an incredible professional opportunity,” she remembers. “Sam, and the report of the committee that had created the position, had me intrigued. The director of health services would be tasked with building a com-