Claire Stoltzfus works in the surgical/trauma ICU at Truman Medical Center as a bedside nurse. She’s from Albuquerque, NM originally, but moved to Kansas City in 2007 to attend UMKC’s nursing school. She moved to Northeast in June 2018 with her husband Dane Casey, who owns a barber shop in the Crossroads.

“Northeast reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up, minus all of the beautiful parks. My favorite park is Kessler Park, where we take our dog, Gibbs, to run off energy,” she said.

We asked Stoltzfus about what life as an ICU nurse has been like right now. “COVID has turned the medical world upside down, and it’s been a hard sadness to care for affected patients sometimes.” Stoltzfus said, “ Because there is no real treatment or cure, only supporting an individual through the symptoms of the virus. It’s scary when it doesn’t feel like the general public is taking it seriously. We are nowhere near ‘out of the woods’.”

She added, “I would encourage everyone to wear masks in public (even when outside) and keep social distancing as much as possible.”

When she’s not saving lives, Stoltzfus enjoys gardening and traveling. She speaks Spanish, which she learned while growing up in Albuquerque, and she studied Spanish while attending UMKC.

“If I could live anywhere else in the world, I would want to be in Latin America,” she admits.