2024 40 Under 40 Winners

Brittany has significantly impacted philanthropy at Nemours Children's Health through her role as Assistant Director, Grateful Patients. Since joining in 2018 as a Development Assistant, she has spearheaded initiatives that have secured over $2M for innovative programs like the Animal Dog and Pony Therapy (ADAPT) program. Her leadership led to training over 100 clinicians in grateful patient fundraising and coordinating 120 volunteers for the inaugural KidsHealth Walk/Run. Recently promoted in 2022, Brittany's achievements include launching the "Infinite Advocate" caregiver recognition program, honoring 55 caregivers through grateful family donations.

My family has faced great adversities with three of my first cousins being diagnosed with a rare blood disorder at birth. For over 20 years, they spent countless days in and out of the hospital and outpatient clinic, and, unfortunately, their lives were cut immensely too short. In the face of tragedy, my aunt, uncle, grandparents, and parents chose to give back to Nemours Children's Health in their memory to help other families and children.

I have chosen to dedicate my career to healthcare philanthropy because of the change I am able to help implement through meaningful relationships with patient families, donors, and corporations who want to make a difference. I also feel that through my family's experience with giving back, I have now come full circle to give other grateful patient families the opportunity to give back in honor of the care they have received to express gratitude, continue relationships with their care teams, and find meaning or closure during some of the most difficult times of their life.

A crucial step in my career came with the onboarding of our Chief Philanthropy Officer at Nemours Children's, Jim Digan. With new leadership brought great opportunities for our team, and I was able to launch an enterprise-wide Grateful Patient and Family Philanthropy Program alongside my manager, Maggie Hightower, and our consulting firm, GOBEL Group. The experience of launching our grateful patient program has been pivotal for my knowledge and journey in healthcare philanthropy.

My greatest passion is cultivating relationships and providing advice, encouragement, guidance, and help to the best of my ability. I enjoy having experiential knowledge to have the confidence to lead others and set those around me up for success. I feel that this stems from the entrepreneurs in my life, specifically my dad. I constantly recognize the entrepreneurial spirit and drive in my work on a daily basis and try to utilize that mindset to inspire others.

I recommend learning as much as you can about your organization through your colleagues, make relationships with the nurses, clinicians, and the patients you serve, and reach out to peers from other organizations to learn from them. The more people you are able to connect with the more you can learn, ask questions, and make a difference at your organization.