LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Elizabeth Parris was nominated by an anonymous colleague.

Nurse Parris is an absolute LifeChanger in both her professional and personal lives. As the Winooski School District school nurse, she treats all 850 students as if they were her own children. She knows all of them by name, what their preferences are, and what stresses they might be bringing with them from home. She makes each child feel special when they enter the health office. Alongside Nurse Katharine Monje, she provides day-to-day health care to any student in need with efficiency, skill, and compassion.

As if that wasn't enough, Nurse Liz also spends countless hours of her own time developing the district's School-Based Health Center. Currently, pediatricians visit the health office three times a week to serve students at the school. In her low-income district, this incredible service is truly life-changing. Without it, many students might not have regular care due to the barriers of accessing doctor's appointments off-site, such as parents missing time from work to take them to appointments. 

Nurse Liz has spent countless hours protecting her learning community from COVID-19 over the past 19 months. She volunteered to be in a video showing families about her choice to get vaccinated. She was among the first in the state to do so. Nurse Liz also worked tirelessly to arrange for in-school vaccination clinics and staff surveillance testing to keep COVID out of the schools. Her role required her to have many difficult conversations with parents about keeping their children home to quarantine. She treated each concerned and frustrated parent as if talking them through the situation was her only task of the day, rather than facing a long list of 50 possible close contacts. 

Nurse Liz had to make very difficult decisions about closing schools last winter, when Winooski's positive case rate was very high. She was heartbroken about closing the schools and having students go fully remote because she knew students needed to be in school, but she felt it was the only way to keep them safe. She always puts students first and cares deeply about their well-being. 

"In her personal life, Liz is also a superstar," her nominator said. "She has three teenage children at Winooski Middle High School. She has also adopted three kids who attend a different school district. So, yes, you've read that right, Liz has done amazing work keeping the Winooski School District safe and healthy while raising SIX children. She's a superhero, and if she could bottle her energy and sell it, she'd be a millionaire."