"This book should be required reading in healthcare education of nurses, doctors or any healthcare provider although it is not a textbook." —Nurse practitioner, Karen N.
Elissa Yancey
Elissa Yancey, MSEd, is an award-winning journalist, educator and non-profit leader who has spent more than three decades listening to, writing about and sharing people’s stories. She has co-founded two story-driven non-profits—WordPlay Cincy and A Picture’s Worth, where she serves as CEO. A Picture's Worth aims to build trust and bridge divides by connecting individuals and communities via intentionally curated multimedia stories, exhibits and educational outreach and training.
After 10 years teaching and working as an administrator at the University of Cincinnati, she launched a consultancy, EY Ink, that blends her expertise as an educator and communicator with her passion for equity. She works with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to shape team learning and growth and coaches experts who want to reach and influence general audiences.
Grab Happy, her first book, took shape over the span of eight years. All the while, Elissa continued working and finding wonder in stories left on the historical sidelines. She is currently working on a book that details the adventures of Annette and E. Lucy Braun, the first and third women to earn PhDs at the University of Cincinnati, after spending years researching Cincinnati’s pioneering women scientists.
ABOUT MY JOURNEY
I've spent my whole life telling other people's stories.
Now it's time to share stories of my own.
I am a child of the Greatest Generation, and these are my parents, Gladys and Jack Yancey, smiling on their wedding day in October 1941. I still love looking at them, fresh-faced and glamorous, the coolest couple at any party. I was the last of six kids, born in 1965, and I had just started raising my own children when my parents entered retirement years. That puts me squarely in what is known as "the Sandwich Generation." According to the Pew Research Center, we are adults "who have a living parent age 65 or older and are either raising a child under age 18 or supporting a grown child."
The stories that evolved into Grab Happy offer glimpses into my journey as my Mom's caregiver while I raised two young sons. They are stories told from my perspective and my perspective only, with all the inherent bias that implies. They illuminate a family both lifted up and brought down by death, yes, but I've also tried to pass along a bit of what I learned along the hard way.
