After 20 years in the military, Colonel Jane Serie ’76, commander of the hospital at Aviano Air Base in Italy, says that she wouldn’t trade her experience with the Air Force for anything.

Serie joined the Air Force in March 1977, just nine months after graduating from Albright. As a child, she says she watched her father live his life in the Air Force and was fascinated by it. That fascination remained with her. “I grew up with it, so I was always familiar with that type of life style.” When a recruiter came to Albright to speak about the Air Force during her senior year, her interest was reawakened. “I wanted to personally see what the Air Force would offer and I liked the traveling aspect,” she says.

However, after being in the Air Force for more than four years, Serie wasn’t sure she wanted to actively serve, so she chose to enhance her education. Serie attended the University of Alabama. “I then became a clinical nurse in Reno, Nev. and absolutely hated it.”

In June 2001, Serie was transferred to Aviano Air Base in Italy, where she will be stationed for two years. “I am a hospital commander and am accountable for all things within that hospital,” she says.

Serie works with four groups made up of flight operations, logistics, support and hospital staff. “While stationed in Italy, I am one level away from day-to-day workers such as the doctors and nurses, so I am afraid that I will miss that particular aspect of my job.”

Upon completion of her two-year assignment in Italy, Serie will be eligible to retire from the Air Force, but she says she is undecided about the future. “I enjoy the Air Force so much and I just don’t know if I am ready to retire.”

Prior to her work in Italy, Serie served as a medical operations squadron commander at Travis Air Force Base in Calif. where she supervised 540 people in a large military medical center that cares for defense personnel, including the Army, Navy and the Coast Guard. “I was in charge of clinical medicine, pediatrics, family practice, primary care, mental health, medical records and, doctors and nurses were all under my command.”

While in California, Series says she also engineered medical services to become more cost effective. “We were experimenting with optimization, which would provide resources to the staff, so they were better informed to allow them to specialize in a particular component of health care.”

Serie says that her career in the Air Force has not only been successful, but also enjoyable. “I enjoy the Air Force because of the camaraderie with other people and how everyone works as one big team.”

She has certainly made a name for herself in the Air Force. Although few awards are given to colonels, she has received the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Medal, ribbons she wears proudly on her uniform. When she was involved with clinical nursing, Serie also received the Company Nurse of the Year award.

— Jennifer M. Hawriluk ’01