how a member of SIUH’s Board of Trustees has built a life based on volunteerism

By Jessica Jones-Gorman • Photos By Amessé Photography

Laura Doerken Lauria was still a student at Curtis High School when she was first struck by the spirit of volunteerism and became a candy striper at the former Staten Island University Hospital campus on Castleton Avenue. She also worked weekends and summers at the St. Vincent’s Hospital nursery, and spent much of her senior year in high school tending to babies being cared for in neonatal intensive care. The experience was so inspiring, Lauria, said, that it molded her desire to become a nurse and to give back to her community. Now, 56 years later, she remains a vital part of the SIUH family, serving on the hospital’s board of trustees.

“To start as a candy striper and be able to now serve on the board of trustees has been a truly amazing experience,” Lauria said. “It’s hard to believe that I have been involved here for 56 years–I have enjoyed every moment.”

For Lauria, who grew up in West Brighton and currently resides on Todt Hill, being a big part of one of her hometown’s largest institutions has given her a sense of great purpose.

“Staten Island University Hospital is such an integral part of our community,” she noted. “This is our hospital…the place we turn when there is an emergency or when we’re in need of urgent care. So, as borough residents, we want and need that hospital to offer the best care and have the best tools. That is why I’ve always felt it necessary to be involved and offer my time and efforts. As community members, this is the hospital that is going to save our lives. We owe it to the organization and to ourselves to support it wholeheartedly.”

After volunteering as a teenager, Lauria received her nurse’s degree from St. Vincent’s Nursing School in 1966 and worked in the St. Vincent’s Hospital pediatric department before taking an office position with Dr. Thomas Quigly, a cardiologist and the hospital’s director of medicine. At age 30, when her three daughters were of school age, Lauria returned to school herself, earning a bachelor’s degree from St. Francis College and later a master’s in public administration from Long Island University. In 1982, she switched gears and became an insurance agent, working with her husband at Mark Lauria Associates, Inc.

“I always felt nursing was my way of showing care and compassion to those in need,” Lauria said. “So even though I changed careers, I continued to work at Eger nursing home and still put in hours on the weekends and in the evenings at Dr. Quigly’s office until his retirement in 1993. I felt wonderful about the care I was delivering to people who needed it, so I wanted to continue.”

Lauria also served on the executive board of the Parent Teachers Association at P.S. 23 and I.S. 24, respectively, while her daughters attended those schools. It was just one part of a rigorous volunteer schedule.

“In 1978 I joined the Junior Guild, a women’s group which brought meals to the elderly,” Lauria said. “I also became involved with the Head Start program in Stapleton and the former Swedish Home in Sunnyside, as well as the Lily Pond Nursing Home in South Beach. I became a camp nurse for the Girl Scouts and served on their health committee, and in 1999, when my middle daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, I joined the Juvenile Diabetes board. In 2000, I became a member of the Wagner College DaVinci Society.”

For Lauria, the mission that helps drive her volunteerism is to raise funds for various forms of research and to give back to the community where she was born and raised.

“I’m just a person who loves to help others,” Lauria said. “I feel so fortunate in my life—what I’ve been able to do and become—so I want to pass that on to others and be a good role model for my girls.”

In 2001, Lauria was nominated to the SIUH board of trustees. She has served as a vice chairperson of the SIUH Foundation Board since its inception in 2005, and has been a SIUH golf sponsor for 10 years. She was also a member of the SIUH Committee for the Care & Healing Campaign, which raised funds for the Regina M. McGinn, M.D., Medical Education Center and the hospital’s new emergency room.

During that time, she gave tours of the new facilities so the public could see the advances that were being made. She was honored at the SIUH charity ball and the SIUH golf outing for her community involvement, and in 2012 was nominated as the North Shore LIJ Health System’s Trustee of the Year by the United Hospital Fund. She was also honored at the Night to Remember for community service at Eger Lutheran Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in 2014, and in 2015 was nominated as Professional Woman of the Year by Star Network for her community service. She currently serves as chairperson of the SIUH Quality Committee and participates in the hospital’s weekly safety rounds, using her medical background to assist the team each Friday morning.

“I joined that committee because I felt that my nursing background would be helpful,” Lauria said. “Not everyone on the team is medically trained, so I thought my input could be of value.”

And the career professional has also been of great value to the hospital system. When performing safety rounds in the labor and delivery unit, she noticed there was a need for a new sonogram machine that would assist in diagnosing pregnant women in distress, so she purchased and donated one herself. This past fall, she donated an EPI scan machine to Eger, to aid in detection and treatment of ulcers and bed sores. She brings Thanksgiving baskets to community members who do not have enough to eat and has also helped pay for the prescriptions of a local teenager in need of a kidney transplant after the youth’s father lost his job. Recently, Lauria purchased game equipment for the SIUH Children’s Cancer Center to help provide an enjoyable diversion for the young patients undergoing chemotherapy .

“How sad for a child to have to undergo such treatments,” she said. “I thought that if they could at least have a video game there, something they are familiar with, it would help to make that process just a little easier.”

And in the midst of all of these efforts, Lauria maintains co-ownership of Mark Lauria Associates, Inc., where she also serves as comptroller. She’s also a member of the Harbor House Ladies group at Eger Lutheran Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, where she assists with holiday parties. But what makes Lauria most proud is that her three daughters, Christine Lauria Badalamenti, Dr. Jennifer Lauria, and Tricia Lauria Flood, have adopted their mother’s spirit of volunteerism by serving on non-profit boards in their communities.

“There is nothing more important to me than my family,” she concluded. “My three daughters have given me seven beautiful grandchildren and I am simply blessed beyond belief to be celebrating my 50th anniversary with my husband Mark this year. And because I have been so blessed—that is truly what inspires me to give back to the community.”

Laura Doerken Lauria
Mark Lauria Associates, Inc., 2043 Richmond Avenue,
718.370.8400 / marklauria.com