She passionately represented the America heart of humanitarian service to every individual that she helped during her years of selfless American Red Cross service.
Close friend and Red Cross health services volunteer Pat Chappell recalls, “Lee truly “walked the talk” of the Red Cross Mission and the Creed of the Red Cross Nurse!” Pat Chappell
Lee Roman’s first experience volunteering with the Red Cross came during the St. Louis floods of 1993. Continuous heavy rains had caused water to slowly make its way down the Mississippi and Missouri rivers over a period of 7 months, destroying everything in its path, leaving behind 30,000 square miles of damage. Like so many future volunteers have done, she watched the devastation from her comfortable couch in Colorado Springs and saw the Red Cross workers on the news every night talking about what they were doing to help victims of the disaster. She was moved to take action!
This initial deployment awoke a passion in her that even she was not aware existed within her. The next several decades she would live with focused purpose. Volunteering in disaster health services gave her a vector and a meaning. Lee had already developed high level medical skills during her career as a nurse. She always took the reins as a capable leader and was well-known for having a knack for identifying problems and working to solve them effectively. Her new-found role as a volunteer was a natural continuation of her life of service. She melded together her well-honed skills and became a champion to help people in their darkest hour.
Since 1993 Lee Roman responded to 39 disasters including the Oklahoma City bombing, and three extended deployments after the 9/11 attacks, once to the Pentagon and twice to Ground Zero. Lee has travelled as far away as the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and twice to Guam on disaster relief operations.
She served on the Red Cross National Leadership Team as the Health and Safety Lead at the Disaster Operations Coordination Center in Washington DC. During Hurricane Katrina she worked at National Headquarters helping to set up the initial response and then deployed to New Orleans where she managed hundreds of nurses on the operation. While evacuated from her own home, she served the needs of others after The Waldo Canyon fire. Among many other distinguished awards are the El Pomar Tutt Summit of Service Award for “Excellence in the Delivery of Humanitarian Service” and the Colorado Nurses Foundation Nightingale Award for “Excellence in Human Caring”.
Her son recalls her answer to the commonly asked question, “Why do you volunteer to go so far away for such a long time?” She would invariably say, “I have the skills, the time and the resources and so I need to go help people.”
Long time volunteer Kathy Sharkey says “We all definitely strive to walk in her shoes. She was a great role model.” Her work for Red Cross was a defining aspect of her character and legacy.
In lieu of flowers, Lee requested that memorial donations be made to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief.