Alumni Spotlight: Anita Gautreaux, ‘12

Late in life Anita Gautreaux returned to college to earn a nursing degree. Today she serves her community as a caring long-term care nurse and also as a Eucharistic minister. Her service earned her the Order of St. Louis IX award, given to laity for exceptional service to the Church.

Well-loved by her classmates, Anita Gautreaux was known for sharing prayers with her class before difficult tests. This non-traditional student (she was in her fifties during her time in school) was selected by her peers to be the vice-president for the Student Nurses Association (SNA), and during her term she helped to develop an SNA commitment to the FMOL’s Mission in Haiti and to breast cancer awareness.

Anita is a registered floor nurse in Long Term Care at the Post Acute Specialty Hospital in Hammond, Louisiana. As a nurse, Anita is committed to her Catholic values, serving all her patients with love, care and compassion. “If my patient is dying I pray with them and prepare their families for their loved one’s passing. Every Sunday a Eucharistic minister comes to the hospital, so I ask my Catholic patients if they would like to receive Communion or if they are not Catholic if they would like the Minister to pray with them. My faith is part of who I am and everyone at the hospital knows it.”

On February 1, 2016 Anita will be recognized as a Distinguished Graduation of Our Lady of the Lake College at the annual Baton Rouge Diocese Dinner.