Thrive-Health Guide Southern West Virginia August 2020 - Page 16

A career
well spent
FORMER VA NURSE
EXECUTIVE LYNN LEGG
By Michelle James
Like many fresh out of high school, Lynn Legg wasn’t sure
just what the future held for her.
Inspired by one of her own high school educators, the
Oak Hill native and 1975 graduate of Collins High School,
briefly attended Concord College preparing for a career as
a business teacher.
“But that’s not what I wanted to do,” she says looking
back.
It was a conversation with her mother, Dora Ann Carte,
who spent her career as the human resources director at
Plateau Medical Center, that helped Legg find her path
forward.
“She said, ‘Well, maybe you’d want to be a nurse,’” Legg
recalls. “She said, ‘Why don’t you get a job here at Plateau
as a nursing assistant and see if you like that kind of care?”
And though Legg had never considered a career in
health care, she took her mother’s advice and quickly
found her calling.
“Right away I knew,” she says. “Within a few months I
knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
• • •
The job as a nursing assistant was just the first stop along
Legg’s health care journey, as she worked her way through
school three times — first to obtain an associates of nursing
degree from West Virginia Tech in Montgomery in
1979 and then bachelors and master’s degrees in nursing
from WVU in 1985 and 1989.
16 • THRIVE • AUGUST 2020