Shirley (Puppe) Agodoa (1961)

Shirley (Puppe) Agodoa was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  Her family moved to Longview where her father worked for the Postal Service and then later accepted a teaching position when the Mark Morris High school was opened.  She attended St. Helen’s Elementary, Kessler, Monticello, and RA Long High School.  She started playing Clarinet in the Band while at Kessler and continued through High School, receiving the ‘Outstanding Music’ Award in her senior year.    She went on to Lower Columbia Junior College, and subsequently completed a Bachelor of Science Nursing degree at the University of Washington.  In 1977, while working as a clinical Nurse Instructor at the Gray’s Harbor Community College, she met her husband Larry.
 
In 1983, husband Larry, then assigned to Madigan Army Hospital, was reassigned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC.  The move to the East Coast opened up many new challenges.  The first ten years, while raising now, five children, she worked as an Emergency Room Nurse for Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, MD., became certified in Emergency Nursing (CEN), attended Georgetown University to become an ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) Instructor.
     
In 1988, took up nursing in government service, and for the next 16 years worked at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.  She became a recovery room staff nurse, and within two years was certified as Post Anesthesia Nurse (CPAN).  In 1990, during ‘Operation Desert Storm’, Admiral Donald Hagen offered her a new Government Civilian (GS) position helping to design and start an Ambulatory Procedure Unit (APU), a first for the Military.  She became a Division Officer, and then Manager, of Prescreen Unit, Same Day Surgery.  She became one of the first nurses in the country to receive Certification in Ambulatory Post Anesthesia (CAPA.  In 1994, was assigned chief liaison to the Capital Physicians.  In 1996, was given a ‘Certificate of Special Achievement Award’ by ‘The Association of Military Surgeons’, for streamlining documentation and initiating the Patient Appointment System activation on APU.  In 1997 she received a Tri-service Research Grant and was given a citation from Rear Admiral Ridenour for her commitment to the advancement of nursing practice.   She was Principal Investigator on the research project entitled “Effect of Patient Positioning on Post Laparoscopic Surgical.   Recovery”.  In 2002, she published her results in the ’Journal of Post Anesthesia Nurse’.  For her publication she received the ‘Mary Hanna Memorial Journalism Award’ in the research category.  In 2003, she was awarded the National ‘American Society of Peri-anesthesia Nurses’ DC Chapter and Chesapeake Bay Chapter ‘Excellence in Clinical Practice’ awards.
     
During their many travels to Ghana in West Africa and seeing the numbers of children not attending school for lack of resources, she and husband Larry formed a non-profit organization the ‘American Program for Educational Enhancement in Developing Countries’ (APEEDEC). The first project, which was completed in 2006, was to build a new middle school, Agodoa Kitti Memorial Junior Secondary School at Sovie, a small village in the Volta Region of Ghana.  During the 2016, tenth year anniversary celebration of the school, 100 refurbished laptops were given to the school to update their computer classroom.  During the dedication ceremony of the school, she was given the title of “Queen Mother” of the Village.  The maintenance and extension of the school is gradually being released to the villagers and the School District officials.