CityView Magazine

Discove r Cit yV iewN C.co m's fre s h up d ate d loo k ! | 33 health issues affecting the homeless and minorities. "I also learned the importance of networking," she says. Valentine would go on to earn her bachelor's degree to become a physician assistant. She kept working – and kept earning degrees. In 1983, she was awarded a Master of Arts degree in adult education and community service from Howard University. at same year, she was promoted to chair for the Department of Physician Assistants at Howard. In 1987, she was awarded her doctorate in education from Virginia Tech University aer attending the satellite campus in Northern Virginia. Valentine says her eyes were first open to the issue of homelessness in the early 1980s. While serving as Chair of Howard's PA program, she partnered with a homeless service agency to receive a grant from the American Academy of Physician Assistants to study the local homeless population. Part of the plan included a van to transport the PA students to various areas to interview homeless men and women, including many veterans, to give them a voice. "I'll always remember one student describing the experience of tasting a homeless man's soup as, 'It's like eating out of a trash can on a hot summer day.' I think the experience gave him more compassion – and taught him that anyone can fall on hard circumstances." e van also contained basic medical items, such as aspirin and cold remedies, along with coats, hats and socks. "I think it's important for students to not just learn from textbooks, but also from real-life experience," Valentine says. "I think that's what education does. It opens our hearts and minds to make a difference." In 1989, Valentine decided to make a difference on a more global scale. She traveled to Malawi in Africa – the first of many trips – to educate nurses in the country on best practices to treat AIDS and HIV patients. She learned more about grant writing and worked with a colleague to help secure a $5 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Along the way, she also became the founding Editor-in- Chief for the Journal of Best Practices in Health Professions. As for her private life, Valentine prefers to keep that quiet. A marriage ended in divorce. She is the "proud parent" of a son, now in his early 30s, and has two young grandsons. In 2005, Valentine received a call from a headhunter regarding an opening as dean for the School of Health Sciences at Winston-Salem State University. A move would mean influencing a new generation of healthcare change-makers – and Valentine also would be just 75 miles from her mother in Danville, Virginia. (Valentine's father died in 2001. Valentine was offered the position at WSSU. Her responsibilities and influence were far-reaching: oversight of educational programs in clinical laboratory science, exercise physiology, health care management, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and rehabilitation counseling. She also had administrative responsibility for the Center of Excellence for the Elimination of Health Disparities and the Rams Know H.O.W. mobile clinic. Her work didn't escape the attention of fellow academics, including those involved with the University of North Carolina System. 'The Call' Back in July 2019, an email subject line immediately caught Valentine's eye: Interim Chancellor at FSU. e sender was Pete Brunstetter, a lawyer who served as a state senator from Forsyth County and is also a former chairman of Winston-Salem- based Novant Heath, Inc., for which Valentine had served on the board.

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