Finding their ‘why:’ Women in healthcare share their journeys at Alys Smith Symposium

November 13, 2025 The Parthenon

When a room full of healthcare professionals is asked, “What’s your why?”, the answers are as diverse as the women themselves. Their journeys may differ from hospital corridors to community clinics, but every path is rooted in a shared purpose: the desire to help others.

Passion was at the heart of the seventh annual Alys Smith Symposium on Women Professionals, held Tuesday, Nov. 12, in the Shawkey Dining Room. 

The event, hosted in partnership with Marshall University’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program and the Office of the President, drew faculty, students and local professionals eager to learn from a panel of women redefining what it means to serve in healthcare.

According to Marshall’s website, the symposium celebrates and highlights the achievements and contributions of women in various professional fields. This year, that celebration centered on Melanie Hall, the Hospice of Huntington CEO and Marshall University alumna, whose keynote address offered a glimpse into resilience, loss and purpose.

Hall’s story began with a spark of curiosity. 

“In early high school, you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to do,” she said, “so I signed up to be a candy striper.”

The once-beloved program at Cabell Huntington Hospital would set the tone for Hall’s lifelong calling. 

“You went room to room passing out candy. Everyone was always happy to see you,” she said. “That’s when I began to develop a desire to serve my community.”

After enrolling in Marshall’s School of Nursing, Hall became a registered nurse at just 20 years old through the university’s 2+2 program, allowing her to work in the hospital while completing her bachelor’s degree.

But it wasn’t long before Hall realized her impact could reach beyond hospital walls. 

“I thought, ‘These people are sick, but what if we could’ve helped them before they got sick?’” she said. That question led her from hospital care to community health, taking a 50% pay cut to join a small, fledgling Valley Health Systems, then operating out of a house on Sixth Avenue in Huntington.

“I saw families taking care of families. I saw people taking care of people, every age, every stage, every illness,” Hall said. “That’s when I knew I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”

Then, life shifted. In 2013, Hall’s husband encouraged her to apply for the CEO position at Hospice of Huntington. A few months later, tragedy struck when a house fire destroyed everything her family owned.

“Thankfully, all my family made it out,” Hall said. “But life changed in just a few hours.”

Not long after, she received an email offering her an interview for the CEO role.

“I started as CEO of Hospice of Huntington without a home, living in temporary housing, and caring for my father, who was at the end of his battle with appendix cancer,” Hall said. “I knew coming to hospice that he would soon be needing hospice care himself.”

Her father passed under the care of her new team, the same team she would soon lead with compassion and purpose. 

“We’re an interdisciplinary group: nurses, physicians, social workers, chaplains, volunteers, bereavement staff,” Hall said. “They selflessly give themselves over and over. They put their values into action every day.”

Since stepping into the role, Hall has continued to expand her reach, creating Tri-State Life Care, an initiative that bridges gaps in supportive care for those with serious illnesses who are not yet in hospice. Through the program, she helped open a medical adult day center that offers clinical and social care under one roof.

As she wrapped up her keynote speech, Hall left the audience with a reminder about finding purpose in the unexpected turns of life.

“We can’t go wrong,” she said. “The road will twist, it will turn, but all the steps of the path shape you into who you are. Take your interests, your pet peeves, your gifts, your talents, the things that are uniquely you, and go help somebody else.”

Following Hall’s speech, a panel of women healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, a radiation physicist and a physician assistant, most of them Marshall alumni, shared their own journeys and “whys.” Their stories revealed not just the challenges of working in medicine, but the fulfillment that comes from finding one’s place in it.

Students, faculty and community members were given the chance to ask questions, connect and learn about nontraditional pathways in healthcare, a fitting close to an evening dedicated to women whose care, courage and conviction define what it means to serve.

Abby Ayes can be contacted at ayes@marshall.edu.