College of Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing
Renee Rassilyer-Bomers, ’03, ’06, ’16, has built an exemplary career in health care, highlighted by her critical leadership during a local COVID-19 vaccination response effort that served as a national model.
For her unwavering dedication to helping the community and her continued leadership in the health care sector, Rassilyer-Bomers is this year’s Outstanding Recent Alumna.
For the past 21 years Rassilyer-Bomers has worked at Swedish, now serving as the Chief Nursing Officer. During the height of the pandemic, she spearheaded vaccination clinics at Seattle University, neighborhoods around Swedish and at Lumen Field. The incredible efficiency of these clinics made the national news when Starbucks’ corporate team brought a systems-efficiency team to study the Seattle University Community Vaccination Clinic.
A nominator said that witnessing Rassilyer-Bomers’ leadership “was equivalent to witnessing an ‘elite athlete’ in action” as she “displayed incredible organizational and systems leadership, outstanding use of patient care technology to address population health and breathtaking collaborations with colleagues, the local university, government and industry as she ensured vaccines were equitably distributed to all people.”
With a small team, Rassilyer-Bomers created the COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Playbook that became a template for scalable response to immunization demands. Her efforts at the vaccination clinic at Lumen Field became the largest civilian-led vaccination site in the nation and exemplified the potential of public and private sector collaborations in public health and emergency events.