Shellie Collins Named Director
of Rector Diabetes Center
PARSONS, Kan., Sept. 10, 2009 – Shellie Collins, R.N., has been named Director of Labette Health’s Rector Diabetes Education and Resource Center. Collins, who has worked at Labette Health since 1998 as a nurse in surgery, behavioral health and most recently, obstetrics, began her new duties September 1.
The Rector Center will be housed in a 2,000-square-foot building now under construction on the Labette Health campus. Construction of the building was funded by a gift from Parsons residents Jacque and Kelly Rector to the Labette Health Foundation. Dedication ceremonies are scheduled for November 17.
The Center will serve as a focal point for diabetes-related educational and research initiatives throughout Southeast Kansas. When completed this fall, the facility will include a demonstration kitchen and classroom, plus a library and resource center with interactive multimedia kiosks. The Center will host programs for groups of school children, educators and nurses, as well as medical professionals, diabetics and their families.
Collins was born at Labette Health, grew up in Labette County and studied nursing at Labette Community College. She and her husband Jamie, who is an inspector at Ducommun Aero Structures, have two sons, Brett, 13, and Scott, 11. Both attend Parsons Middle School.
“I have a family history that includes diabetes, so I saw how that affected people. It motivated me to learn about nutrition and fitness, and to teach my children about them,” Collins said.
“The Rector Center will provide a great opportunity to reach children and get information to them that could be life-changing. There is so much that people don’t know about health and nutrition – the difference between good fats and bad fats, for instance, or serving sizes. Our servings are ’way out of proportion.”
Collins said that a major focus of her work with the Rector Center will be developing activity programs that involve children and adults in physical exercise. Collins is a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer, and a body-builder, winning the title of 2008 Miss Natural Springfield in the Missouri Classic. She also is a certified instructor in Zumba, a fitness class that combines dance moves like salsa, merengue, tango and cumbia with traditional exercise routines.
“I was on the first national Zumba magazine ad campaign and on Zumba’s first Spanish-speaking infomercial, both in 2004,” she said,
Collins said she plans to continue and expand Labette Health’s Healthy Kids Initiative, which last fall screened more than 600 children in grades two through five at five area elementary schools. Data from the pilot program screenings – height, weight and blood pressure – was used to compile body-mass-index (BMI) statistics. More than 36 percent of the pilot group were obese or overweight, compared with the national level of 32.2 percent found in Centers for Disease Control studies.
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