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Inside:
Volume 48, Number 8
W I N S TO N - S A L E M , N . C .
THURSDAY, October 28, 2021
Soaring over Quarry Park
Photos by Alphonso Abbott Jr.
Winston-Salem is known as the City of Arts and Innovation and is home to beautiful, picturesque sceneries. Enjoy this surreal photo taken from the overlook at Quarry Park. This view was captured by Alphonse Abbott, who is a local photographer and owner of Jr.’s Action Shots. See more about Abbott on A2 as The Chronicle highlights him for Photographer Appreciation Month.
Carver alum sworn in as president of NC Nurses Association THE CHRONICLE
As part of their 114th Annual Convention last month, Winston-Salem native Meka Douthit EL was sworn in as president of the North Carolina Nurses Association (NCNA). Douthit EL is only the third Black person to serve as president of the NCNA. After being sworn in during the convention
held on Sept. 23, Douthit EL, who is a graduate of Carver High School, said she was honored to serve as president of the NCNA. She said, “I am blessed and honored and proud to stand before you as the third African American president, following in the footsteps of Sandra Wilder and Dr. Ernest Grant.” Douthit EL said although she didn’t know it then, Carver and her upbringing helped shape her into the person she is today. She said when she attended Carver, it was a place where students were inspired to be all they could be and her family stressed the importance of helping others and giving back to the community. “We had mentors who poured into us and that’s where I learned you can do anything that you want, but it takes hard work. I graduated from Carver in 1991 and at
Meka Douthit EL that time we had a lot of movers and shakers and a lot of forward thinkers,” she continued. “And my family … one side is Gilmore Funeral Home
Submitted photo
and on the other side is Douthit Funeral Home, so I grew up in a family of hard workers who gave back to the community, so it’s always been a part of
me. I think all of that was very foundational to who I am.” After high school, Douthit EL attended NC A&T State University where she originally majored in chemical engineering before transferring to UNC Greensboro (UNCG) and changing her major to nursing. She mentioned that she had a professor who tried to convince her to go to medical school, but nursing gave her more freedom. “In nursing you can do lots of different things. You go to medical school and you’re tied to the one thing you specialize in. I felt I had freedom and opportunity in the nursing profession and could do a lot of things, and that’s what I did and haven’t regretted it. Nursing has been very good to me,” she said. Douthit EL received her bachelor’s of science
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in nursing from UNCG in 1996. She went on to earn her master’s degree from East Carolina University and her doctorate from Old Dominion University. For the past six years, Douthit EL has served as a director at Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro. Douthit EL said now that she is in a leadership role, she has the opportunity to take care of the staff and spend time with patients that other staff may not have the time to do. “I can spend time holding a hand, I can spend time getting to know the patient a little more and find out about their grandchildren and look through pictures on their phone. I get to fill in that gap,” Douthit EL continued. “I sit in a good seat. It’s tiring, it’s some of hardest work See Douthit on A2 6 89076 32439 7
BY TEVIN STINSON