'CoxHealth has a lot to offer' - Reflecting on a 47-year career

For Laboratory Manager David Stewart, CoxHealth was an ideal place to build a career – so perfect that that his work here spanned almost five decades.

Over the last 47 years, his career grew from a part-time job in the Burge Hospital lab during high school, to a variety of Laboratory positions and eventually supervisory and leadership roles in the department.

“As a kid, I had always felt like I wanted to do something medical, but I didn’t know much about the Lab until I got into it,” he says. By college, David knew medicine was the career for him.

“I liked the nature of the work we do - the work we do is very important,” he says. “And I always enjoyed the people I worked with.”

David had graduated and was working full-time in the Lab when Cox South opened, allowing him to try new roles and move into a supervisory position for the first time.

“I was able to move around to several different positions and that always kept my interest,” he says. “CoxHealth has a lot to offer - there are always opportunities in many different areas.”

David says he pursued those opportunities here rather than looking elsewhere because of the culture at CoxHealth.

“I was fortunate with the people I had mentoring me. Leaders like Sue Watkins and Gisele Bauman are great role models with great communication skills,” he says. “As an organization, we have great leadership in key areas and a good sense of where we are going. We are family- and community-oriented and CoxHealth is well positioned for the future.”

As he prepared for retirement in early June, David was looking forward to family time and international travel. He knows CoxHealth is in good hands, and he knows what he will miss most: the people.

“I have a lot of good friends in the Lab and it will be an adjustment not to see them on a daily basis,” he says. “Everybody here has a good sense of purpose and they are so dedicated to their work. Everything we do is in the patient’s best interest.”