Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2020

becoming CEO in 2010. She’s served in top leadership posts ever since. Teamwork is essential to leadership success, says Persichilli. And teamwork has been critical to attacking COVID-19. “You have to have the courage to know what you don’t know,” she says, “and to bring in people who can help you. Whether you’re Dr. Fauci or Judith Persichilli, we all need input.” Lessons from the Pandemic The pandemic has far-reaching implications for public health, in New Jersey and around the world. “Life as we know it has changed totally, and we can never go back,” Persichilli says. Important lessons learned from the pandemic, she notes, include the immediate need to strengthen the public health infrastructure —the workforce, information systems, and agencies focused on community, rather than individual, health—to improve our ability to respond nimbly to COVID-19 and future pandemics. In mid-June, Persichilli’s department installed a new computer server to help handle the influx of crucial data. “Never has data”— about test results, about COVID hot spots, about the very nature of the disease—”been more important than in this crisis,” she says. And, she continues, “the fragility of long-term care” was painfully spotlighted, as facilities serving the elderly were disproportion- ately hit by the virus. Human Resiliency—An Up-Close View The crisis has also showed Persichilli how people can rise to con- front challenges when there’s no other choice. She’s had to pull people away from their areas of expertise and convince them to do things they’d never done before, like help the Army build out field hospitals. “What I learned about people during the pan- demic I’ll carry with me forever,” she says. “To experience, up front, the best of humanity—that’s a gift.” n R U T G E R S N U R S I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 6 / 7 (L-R) Persichilli visits New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers transformed a gymnasium into a 30-bed COVID unit and constructed a 100-bed care tent. Gov. Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammi Murphy congratulate Persichilli at her January 2020 swearing in ceremony.