Forty-nine years ago, Sherry Johnson began volunteering as a candy striper in the Audiology department at CRH. Today, she manages the department.

Sherry was later hired as a nurse’s aide while in the C4 program at Columbus East High School. Upon graduation, a physical therapy aide position opened, and she worked in that role for more than six years, helping with wound debridement, burn treatments, and patient transports. Later she received on-the-job training and attended the IU School of Medicine Electroneurodiagnostics program to become a neurodiagnostic technologist and sleep technologist, conducting electroencephalograms (EEGs) and sleep studies with the opening of the Sleep Lab in 1987. For the next 30 years, she became board certified, receiving four credentials in the field of sleep and neurodiagnostics. She also received extensive training to become an intraoperative monitoring technologist at Massachusetts General University, University of Louisville, and Atlanta Medical Center to monitor the brain, spinal cord, and spinal nerves during neuro and orthopedic surgeries, working for Dr. Daria Schooler, Dr. John Chambers, and the OR team for 25 years. In 2017, she became manager of the Sleep Center, and a year later she assumed managerial responsibility for audiology and speech, neuropsychology, and the driving program.

Sherry has spent her entire career at CRH due to the multiple growth opportunities the organization has provided her. “CRH enabled me to discover and pursue my passion,” she said. “They acknowledged my hard work, because they invested in me. I love working with people and the positive impact that treating someone with neurological and sleep disorders has,” said Sherry. She also enjoys working with the different teams she manages. “Everyone has the autonomy to do their job, and they do it well. I’m very proud of the teams I oversee,” she said.

Like others who worked at CRH during the 2008 flood, the recovery period was a positive time for Sherry. She was called in to move cars, which she said “became more than just moving cars.” People were needed on every floor of the hospital to make sure no one was left behind. “Just watching everyone come together for that sole purpose, and that no one was harmed – that was a proud day,” she said.

Following the flood, the Sleep Center initially reopened in a temporary location in the former Marriott hotel, which was retrofitted to support patients. “We knew how to make things work without cell phones and computers. It was our feet and paper,” said Sherry. The team traveled throughout Columbus to pick up referral orders and then scheduled patients. 

Sherry also has positive memories from the COVID pandemic. Many of her team members were “right in the trenches” in the ICU conducting EEGs, while Sleep Center respiratory therapists were lending a hand at the hospital.

Sherry has a list of things she’d like to accomplish before she retires in the next five years. “I always had a lot of goals and a vision of where I wanted the Sleep Center and Neurodiagnostics to go and grow,” she said. One of those goals came to fruition recently with the expansion of the Sleep Center and hiring of more staff.

Looking back on her career after receiving her 45-year service award this year, Sherry feels very proud. “I couldn’t ask for more,” she said.