Teresa Hurt Ellis, Certified Dietary Manager, recently was named employee of the year at Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital. Ellis will be one of the more than 100 persons honored by Community Health Systems at a reception, dinner and awards ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 27.

Ellis and a guest will be treated to an all-expense paid weekend trip to Nashville and will stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The day after the awards ceremony will be devoted to sightseeing in and around Nashville.

Ellis has been an employee of SSMH for 12½ years and started out cooking in the cafeteria in the evenings and baking desserts on weekends. “Later I was convinced to take the certified dietary manager course from the University of North Dakota,” she said.

Ellis’ current job duties include assessing patients for nutritional needs, working one-on-one with patients, typing assessment papers for charts and supervising staff members.

Ellis lives in Colcord, Okla., and is married to Owen Ellis. They have one son, Jacob Ellis, who will be 20 soon.

“I love to garden, go camping, fishing, and if there is a Bluegrass festival and I’m off work you can bet I’ll try to be there,” she said. In fact, Ellis used to sing with her family’s bluegrass band, Harmony Hollow, years ago.

While cooking is a huge part of her professional life, Ellis said she doesn’t do as much cooking at home as she used to except around the holidays.

The staff and patients are one of the things Ellis looks forward to when coming to work every day. “We have some really great people working here. We’re like family. And I love to visit with the patients. Sometimes you can come across some very interesting stories, but mostly the older adults just want someone to talk to.”

Julie Shearin, human resources director, said Ellis “makes a difference every day in the lives of our patients, our employees and our community.”

“I would like to convey to everyone how very honored and proud I am to have this very special opportunity to represent our hospital and dietary department,” Ellis said. “I have lots of people that play a big role in helping me every day. Thanks again, you can not imagine how very excited and appreciative I truly am.”