Joan S. Kershner: One Woman’s Rise to VA Medical Center Director

In January 1976, Joan S. Kershner arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, for the groundbreaking ceremony of a new Veterans Administration hospital. She approached a table to pick up her identification badge, only for the table attendant to tell her, “Sorry, but this table is only for important guests.” When Kershner responded that she was to be the new hospital’s Director, the attendant surprisedly exclaimed, “You?”[1]

At the time, Kershner’s appointment as Director of a VA medical center was, indeed, surprising. Up until 1971, all VAMC directors had been male. That year, Dr. Valerija Raulinaitis became the first female VAMC director when she became head of the Leech Farm Road VAMC. Other women, Kershner included, soon followed in Raulinaitis’s footsteps.

Kershner’s career in the medical field began decades earlier. A native of Creighton, Nebraska, Kershner attended Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, where she majored in Foods and Nutrition with minors in Chemistry and Psychology. She graduated in May 1945, just weeks after the close of World War II in Europe. She then began a year-long internship at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., after which she was officially considered a registered dietician.

In October 1946, Kershner elected to join the U.S. Army and was temporarily assigned as a dietician in the Medical Replacement Pool at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Her first official orders, however, took her to Oliver General Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. After two years, she briefly transferred to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, followed by a return to Georgia after being promoted to first lieutenant.

Kershner was discharged from the military in the summer of 1950. That August, she received a telegram containing a job offer for a staff dietician position at VA Hospital 48 in Atlanta. This hospital was a tuberculosis hospital and Kershner had been trained in tuberculosis treatment while at Walter Reed. She accepted the position, believing it would be on a temporary basis. In fact, this position would launch a nearly 40-year career with VA.

After only a year as a staff dietician, Kershner was promoted to Assistant Chief of the Dietetics Service and transferred back to Oliver General Hospital, which had recently been acquired by VA and redesignated the Forest Hills VAMC. She remained at Forest Hills for a year before returning to Atlanta to work at the Lawson General VAMC. In 1963, she was promoted again to Chief of the Dietetics Service, prompting a move to the VAMC in Phoenix, Arizona. She stayed there until 1967, when she was once again transferred, this time to Durham, North Carolina.

In 1969, while serving as Chief of the Dietetics Service in Durham, Kershner found out that she had been selected for VA’s Assistant Director Trainee Program. The program required a yearlong study of hospital management in Nashville, Tennessee. She readily accepted the position, after which she received Assistant Hospital Director assignments in Montgomery, Alabama; Lake City, Florida; and Tampa, Florida. In Tampa, she helped set up the new medical school and even served as Acting Director for five months after the previous Director unexpectedly retired.

Kershner’s career continued to flourish, and, in January 1976, she received an unexpected call from VA’s Chief Medical Director. He asked her to fly to Columbia, South Carolina, the following week. When she asked why, he responded: “Put on a hard hat, get a shovel, and join a small group in turning over some dirt for a new hospital. You are to be the new hospital Director.”[2] Kershner was stunned, telling the Chief Medical Director that she wasn’t sure whether she was ready to lead a hospital. Even so, she accepted the offer and was among the first five women to be appointed Director of a VAMC. She traveled to Columbia for the groundbreaking ceremony of the new hospital and officially started her new position on February 1, 1976.

The Columbia VAMC was a new, 400-bed hospital that served as the replacement for an existing medical center on the same site. Ground was also broken for a new 120-bed nursing facility the year after Kershner became Director. For the first several years of her tenure, Kershner was responsible for overseeing the move of VA equipment and staff from the old facilities to the new ones. She also worked with the University of South Carolina to “prepare, refurbish, and then occupy the old VA campus buildings for a new medical school.”[3] In addition, Kershner oversaw the expansion of the hospital’s psychiatry service in the late 1970s. Throughout it all, as she later wrote in her autobiography, “patient care and employee well-being [were] at the top of the [priority] list.”

During her 21 years as Director, Kershner placed great value on the opportunities she had to connect with her staff. She blocked off an hour in her schedule each morning and afternoon so that she could visit the various hospital departments and see where improvements could be made. She later wrote, “It is surprising what one can see, hear, and learn. I went from surgical service to warehouse, and from the laundry to the laboratory. In time, I went everywhere.” She even visited the hospital’s boiler room, to the surprise of its workers, who exclaimed that “no Director [had] ever come down here before.”[4] Her hospital rounds were not the only way in which Kershner expressed her appreciation for her employees. She hosted annual Christmas parties at her home in the Director’s Quarters and spaced out the invitation times so that she could personally greet each guest. She also regularly worked holidays so that her staff could spend time with their families. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Kershner was greatly respected by the hospital’s workers.

Kershner’s success as Director was also recognized by those outside the hospital setting. She was a two-time recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award, which recognized Federal employees for exceptional service. She was also a member of the Advisory Committee of Medical Center Directors who were responsible for advising VA’s Chief Medical Director on healthcare-related policies.

Kershner retired as Director of the Columbia VAMC in the spring of 1987, ending a career which spanned nearly four decades and eight different states. At her farewell reception, the VAMC’s interim Director, Glen N. Shaurette, announced that the Director’s conference room at the hospital would be named in Kershner’s honor. In describing Kershner’s tenure, Shaurette noted that “she has gained nothing but the highest compliments from every tier of staff of the hospital. She has been excellent to work with.” These sentiments were echoed by Kershner’s secretary, Glenda Gissendanner, who admired how Kershner’s door was “always open to the Veteran.”[5] 

Kershner remained involved in Veteran organizations long after retirement, including serving as a board member for the Military Officers of America Association and actively participating in her local American Legion. She also maintained her relationships with those at the Columbia VAMC and returned to the campus on several occasions to offer advice or give lectures. After a lifetime of service, Kershner passed away on August 25, 2019.

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[1] Joan S. Kershner, Family Stories: Volume 2 (2021), 92.

[2] Family Stories, 82-83.

[3] Family Stories, 91.

[4] Family Stories, 103-104.

[5] Charles A. Twardy, “A Veteran Steps Down,” State (Columbia, SC), May 1, 1987.