Title: EVS Operations Manager
Company: Jewish Hospital, KentuckyOne Health
Location: Louisville, KY United States

After years of service in the U.S. Navy, Linda Cochran decided to switch careers and join Jewish Hospital, which is part of the KentuckyOne Health system. The hospital, which opened in 1905, places a strong emphasis on research and education, and is developing leading-edge advancements in a vast number of specialties and services. It is federally designated to perform solid organ transplants for the heart, lung, liver, kidney, and pancreas, and is also the site of the nation’s first four hand transplants. Ms. Cochran currently serves the institution as the EVS operations manager, which allows her to utilize her leadership skills and her God-given gift of communication. Looking forward, she hopes to become a regional manager with the hospital, and eventually retire from there.

The biggest challenge Ms. Cochran faced was proving herself and rising above the poverty from which she came. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she, her mother and her siblings had to move into living conditions she didn’t want to be in when she got older. Thus, Ms. Cochran developed ambition; she was determined not to be a product of her environment. She is proud of her accomplishments, including surviving the U.S. Navy boot camp and raising her disabled child as a single parent. Ms. Cochran attributes her success to the spirit of her mother and her mentor, Geraldine Love.

Inspired by her connection to God and the way he uses her in the lives of others, Ms. Cochran would like to be remembered as a person who cared enough to give back; a person who passed it forward every day without judgment. She has supported Paralyzed Veterans of America for 13 years, as well as JCPS in Louisville, Kentucky and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Ms. Cochran was also nominated for induction into the International Who’s Who of Professional Management in 1998, and The International Women’s Leadership Association. If she could offer some advice to the younger generation of women entering the workforce, it would be to press on even when it seems failure is imminent; sometimes failure is the lesson needed to move on to the next level.

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