Dee Guttadore is known for the many strong qualities she has as a leader and a mentor. But one of her most redeeming traits is her ability to make everyone laugh. She uses that sense of humor to develop relationships with her direct reports and other staff in the organization, which can be a great relief in the midst of stress. Dee can be described as a “relationship person,” always building and nurturing her connections with co-workers to ensure everyone around her is challenged but feels supported. Dee is a great motivator, likely because she takes the time to know and value each of her employees’ unique abilities and talents—a trait that contributes to what makes her an excellent leader.

Dee is a leader among her quality network peers, serving to update policies and bring thoughtful discussion and innovative ideas to help make the network successful. In her role as administrative director of the Sycamore Medical Center Emergency Department and Kettering Health Network Emergency – Franklin, Dee has worked to ensure that each of these departments receives the Guardian of Excellence Award, a departmental award for exceptional customer service—above the 95^th percentile—for four consecutive quarters. Sycamore has received this for three years in a row and Franklin for one. Dee’s leadership also contributed to her departments maintaining the title of top in the network for patient length of stay and decreased readmission rates. Through all she has done for the network, she inspires others to achieve more by setting high expectations for her team and the quality of the care they offer. She works with her team to identify any barriers to effectively completing their work and leads them in removing those barriers.

While Dee is effective and skilled when it comes to carrying out her responsibilities in her role, she also puts forth a great effort to ensure that others can do the same. As a mentor to graduate students and nurse fellows, Dee uses her knowledge as a leader to shape these people early in their careers into future leaders themselves. Dee has mentored seven nurse practitioners and three new clinical nurse managers over the past five years. She works outside of regular hours to coordinate Sycamore’s Safety Fair, an event put on to the public that offers safety information and resources to community members. Rather than focusing on her own achievements, Dee invents ways to recognize other employees for their efforts, including making Nurse’s Week special by working with Kinder & Medlar elementary schools to create banners for the nurses and having the kids sign it to show their appreciation. Dee has also worked on the Stars Come Out at Night, an event that happens at the end of Daylight Saving’s Time, which honors night shift employees with a coffee cart, raffle prizes, a red carpet, and a photo shoot.

Those that work with Dee see that she continuously lives the mission and values of our organization based on her day-to-day interactions and the joy she gives to others by sharing her time and talents to help solve problems and support others. In that way, she is demonstrative of “caring,” one of Kettering Health Network’s five values. However, a value that describes Dee that may not be as obvious based on all the behind-the-scenes work she does is “collaborative.” Dee values her team, and she puts effort into figuring out how to capitalize on the strengths of each of her team members while doing what she can to help them perform their best to meet their goals. Dee sets the direction for her employees, but ultimately gives them permission to use their own judgment, focusing on individual needs but allowing them to be accountable. Using this strategy, Dee creates an intense sense of teamwork in which her employees thrive. This is an integral part of the team’s mission to sustain leading metrics for the Emergency Department’s performance, a task at which they have been successful.

Dee has a reputation as someone who is often the leader to guide participation in community or civic events. She cares deeply for her community and is a role model in identifying creative ways to connect with the needs of the individuals living in Miamisburg and Franklin. In collaboration with the Miamisburg Police Department, Dee planned and executed National Night Out, an event that brings police and firefighters to meet the community, educates on infection prevention and provides a fun, family-friendly environment with dunk tanks and a blow-up slide. For seven years Dee has been involved with the Giving Tree at Sycamore, a program that collects hats, scarves, gloves, and mittens and donates them to different organizations in need. Dee guarantees the presence of emergency-related education at community events such as Miamisburg’s 200^th anniversary, Tour d’ Burg, and That Spring Thing, the Springboro Chamber Hometown Exposition. Their presence offers more education on first aid tactics and often provides services such as blood pressure checks. Additionally, Dee helped facilitate a drill on the Sycamore campus through the Regional Disaster Preparedness program to make sure her team is prepared to take on any community needs in the event of a disaster.