Lyna was born and raised in Kenya by strong women who understood that when you educate a girl child you educate the community. Lyna was sent to America for educational opportunities and today she is a registered nurse, currently working as an administrative manager in a level one trauma hospital. In other words, she is a hospital house supervisor. Lyna graduated as the outstanding student of the year 2009 from Metropolitan State University and was nominated for the nurse of the year 2016 Award by March of Dimes in Minnesota. Lyna received the 2017 Creative Nursing Award from the Minnesota Nurses Association, the 2017 National Role Model Award from Minority Access Inc. of Washington D.C., and the 2017 Women of Global Solutions from iChange Nations, Grand Rapids Michigan.
Growing up, Lyna wanted to become a kind, helpful and caring person who can alleviate pain and suffering. Lyna was inspired by the strength, vision, resilience, and resolve of her mother and grandmother. Her family had a strong lineage of entrepreneurship, industry, and charitable work that became her motivation and drive to propel her into the path she pursued. Lyna was described as witty, outgoing, brave, and bold, a go-getter, likely to impact the world in a positive way. Some said she was destined for great things. Lyna believed that each person has a God-given vision exclusively for that person. For her, she said, her mission “is to influence positively by sprinkling positivity and motivation everywhere and always advocating for the less privileged.” Lyna associated her vision with her favorite quote from Martin Luther King Jr., the African-American civil rights champion who said, “I don’t have to do great things, but I can do small things in a great way.”
Lyna is the founder and President of The African Nurses Network Inc. (TANN), a 501c (3) non-profit organization whose mission is to empower immigrant and refugee nurses to create and provide opportunities and resources for the underserved populations. It was founded in 2016 as a Facebook group before growing into a registered non-profit organization. The goal of TANN is to promote cultural humility in health institutions and organizations, exposing racism or discrimination in a professional, non-confrontational, and factual manner. TANN developed a workshop to increase cultural humility. The workshop impacted many participants that give awesome reviews. Subsequently, it created more conversations that led to relationships building.
Lyna is seen as a blessing to many. She is confident, innovative, creative, professional, and a visionary, change agent, mentor, and advocate. Lyna’s passion is driven by the desire to make a positive difference and improve people’s lives. “To whom much is given much is required,” she quipped like Maya Angelou said, “always do your best. When you know better you do better.” Lyna wants others to do better or find resources for what they need because there are enough pieces in the American pie for all. It brings satisfaction to Lyna and keeps her going, pushing her to do more knowing that the impact she has on people brings smiles to faces and changes lives.