Nominating Organization: LIG

An Angel Among Us: Evangeline Baet Epper Lifts Up The Fallen, Brings Love and Healthcare To Children and Others in Need

Evangeline Baet Epper pursued her dream to participate in international medical missions when, in 2005, she joined Cross Cultural Solutions for a two-week trip helping children with special needs in China.

Originally from the Philippines, where Evam earned her RN/BSN degree from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, she emigrated to the United States where she has been working since 1985 at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, New Jersey.

During her nursing career, she studied at Fairleigh Dickinson University and obtained a certificate in Legal Healthcare consulting.

Following her first mission to China, Evan was recruited by Dr. Mark Helbraun and the NGO, Physicians for Peace, in 2006 and started doing surgical missions with them for many years in Eritrea Africa and Kaduna, Nigeria. Her work with Physicians for Peace culminated in 2008 when she was named their Humanitarian Volunteer of the Year.

Always responding to the call for help, her volunteer international work has brought her to numerous countries including Haiti following the earthquake of 2010. There she joined a surgical mission organized by St Boniface Haiti Foundation. She has worked with the International Organization for Women and Development whose mission is focused on the treatment of vaginal fistula repairs in Nigeria, Vietnam, Niger and Rwanda.

She has worked with a team from Operation of Hope that performed Cleft Lip / Cleft Palate Repairs in Zimbabwe. She has worked with International Surgical Health Initiative (ISHI) performing much needed surgical procedures in underserved areas of Peru.

Since 2011, she has been a Nurse leader for LIG Global Foundation during their surgical missions in the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, Grenada and Haiti.

Because of her invaluable experience working in diverse surgical settings, she has become a role model and mentor to other nurses. More importantly, because she embodies the definition of compassion- love in the face of suffering – she has become a ͞mother͟ figure at LIG Global.

A testament to her dedication and boundless spirit of compassion, in 2015 she was the Recipient of the HUMC Nurse Excellence Award for Humanitarian / Community Services.

Currently, she is the Chairwoman for the NJ chapter of the National Pancreas Foundation which exists to support research to find a cure for pancreatic cancer.

Her body of international work includes 18 missions in 11 different countries!

Evan is an unstoppable force for good, and one of the most active, generous and inspiring nurses I’ve had the honor to meet – and now honor with the Nurses With Global Impact Award, presented to Evan and twelve other honorees at the United Nations on International Nurses Day.

Please join me in a warm embrace and gratitude for Evan and all the colleagues whose missions she blessed.

– Deb