CofC Faces to Know: Bridget McLernon Sykes

Name: Bridget M. McLernon Sykes

Hometown: Tough question. Born in New Jersey, spent elementary school through middle school in Ohio and went to high school and college in Wisconsin. Spent several years in California before moving to South Carolina in 1997, where I have lived for longer than anywhere else.

Education: B.A. in English literature from University of Wisconsin-Madison; Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing, Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)

Job title: COVID Lead and Campus Nurse Practitioner (Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner)

How long have you worked at the College? Since September 2008

What are your job responsibilities? As a nurse practitioner, provide medical and psychiatric patient care to any enrolled CofC student. As COVID lead:

Meet regularly with university president, senior staff and other campus leadership to provide input and guidance related to COVID-19 so as to safeguard the public and College community through planning, mitigation, preparation and recovery from COVID-19

Provide recommendations and changes to COVID-19 guidance as relevant to all other campus stakeholders as needed

Communicate with Student Health Services (SHS) leadership and staff, acting as liaison to campus leadership so that all remain aware of campus-related infection rates, isolation and quarantine status

Serve as resource for employee and student cases of COVID-19 to provide effective, timely response to rapid-containment measures needed to prevent spread of COVID-19

Facilitate partnerships with outside entities to provide testing and surveillance (e.g., DHEC, MUSC) as appropriate

Developed and previously managed quarantine and isolation logistics team, meeting seven days a week to care for on-campus students in quarantine and isolation

Coordinate and implement random testing and pre-arrival testing protocol

What do you like most about your job? In the COVID lead position, I have really appreciated being able to work with campus leadership to provide guidance related to important medically relevant initiatives – especially during the COVID pandemic, as well as when I was director of Student Health Services during the mumps outbreak in fall 2019. When I was director at SHS, I valued supporting the staff and working with all there to make the clinic a great place on campus to work. But my favorite part of my job is treating patients in my role as nurse practitioner at SHS. I have always really enjoyed providing care to our student patients.

What question do you get asked most in your job and what’s your typical answer? The thing that impresses me most is the variety of questions that I get, especially since becoming COVID lead. I rarely get the same question twice, but I like being able to work with all the different members of campus – faculty, staff, family members of staff and faculty, students, parents – to come up with solutions. Keeps me on my toes.

What’s your favorite location on campus and why? I like finding new cut-throughs and shortcuts through little, lesser-used walkways on campus. I also like to have outside meetings with people in the shaded benches behind the library on Rivers Green.

What are your hobbies? I am a pretty avid listener of podcasts and audiobooks. I also love movies. I enjoy running, yoga and exercise in general, and usually really like traveling, but haven’t been doing as much of that recently for obvious reasons.

What personal and/or professional accomplishment are you most proud of? Is it OK to say that I am really proud of my children? They are great people who work hard to be kind and thoughtful members of society. I have taken my job as a mom really seriously and feel super grateful for all the luck and privilege that has been afforded to me for reasons I did not earn or necessarily deserve. Professionally, I feel grateful that I was able to go back to school in my 30s and become a nurse practitioner. It took a lot of focus and energy – but, again, I was only able to do that because I had a very supportive husband, and there were lots of cards that were stacked in my favor allowing me to accomplish this.

Name a creative work (book, movie, performance, etc.) you enjoyed recently and why? I have been really impressed with the variety and quality of programming on streaming services during the pandemic. I am really enjoying Ted Lasso at the moment. It can be a bit corny at times, but I like how it is about people doing their best to be decent to one another. That feels really good to me, especially with so much discord and rancor in the world right now.

What was your favorite TV show growing up? I loved the show Bewitched. I wanted to be Samantha Stephens. If I could, I would love to twitch my nose and make the COVID pandemic go away. I also really liked The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She had a really cool apartment and great clothes. I look back now though, and both shows are a little horrifyingly sexist, while at the time they were thought to be pretty progressive.

What’s next on your bucket list? I would really like to travel with friends in Italy sometime next year.

What is something your campus colleagues would be surprised to know about you? When I was 12, my dad had a job that took him to the Middle East, and I spent a year going to school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I was so shy at the time – people at the school I went to thought I was Swedish and did not speak English because I spoke so little.

What was your first job? My first job (outside of babysitting) was working in a garden center in Mequon, Wisconsin, as a floral designer/arranger. It was such a creative job, but unbeknownst to me, I was hired for the Christmas season, and when I was laid off in January, I was crushed because I have always taken my work seriously, lol.

What’s your favorite Lowcountry restaurant? I used to really like Hominy Grill. Their shrimp and grits were better than any other I have ever had, and I miss being able to go there and order that dish.

Describe your perfect day: My perfect day starts early, involves physical activity or a project, good food, family and friends and a great night’s sleep.

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