Title: Senior Manager of Community Social Work and Lead Field Health Outreach

Company: UMWA Health and Retirement Funds

Location: Beckley, W.V.

Through her insatiable hard work and tenacious persistence, Juanita Bishop continues her role as senior manager at UMWA Health and Retirement Funds, helping with their community social work and lead field health outreach programs. She was a nurse’s aide for 11 years, a U.S. Army medic for 11 years, and went to pratical nursing school after finishing a Bachelor of Social Work at Concord University, graduating Cum Laude status. She is also a licensed social worker and a certified case manager. Ms. Bishop has always had compassion for the geriatric population and working with them has become her passion.

Ms. Bishop’s advice for young women starting any profession is to do work that they love and reinvent themselves if they change their mind. Her biggest challenge was getting started late in life while raising her two girls as a single parent, but found strength in her attitude to improve herself and focus, and passion for the health care profession. However, her current goal is to retire, but still learn new skills, and become an agent of change and advocacy. Ms. Bishop’s greatest accomplishment to date has been raising her two good girls who have given her five grandchildren, and maintaining success through her family name.

One thing Ms. Bishop would like to change is employer focus on life and work experience opposed to the amount of educational degrees someone has to their name. The National Association of Social Workers has also helped her garner experience and keep up with changes in the field. She is also a David K. Brown Scholar, and supports the local Human Society and the ASPCA. During her free-time, Ms. Bishop likes to garden, paint and refinishes old furniture, and play with her grandchildren.