Billie Lynn Allard, MS, RN, FAAN

There’s an old English proverb that goes, ‘All good things come to those who wait.’ Billie Lynn Allard of North Adams, Massachusetts, is a believer. But her wait to become a Russell Sage College nursing student does seem a little excessive.

You see, Billie decided in high school that Sage was the place for her. She knew she wanted to be a nurse and all her research was telling her that Sage should be her number one choice.

Her father was of another mind set. The local state university would be plenty good enough, he thought. So that’s where Billie ended up.

Fast forward 20 years. Billie is the mother of three children and Director of Emergency Department Nursing at North Adams Regional Hospital. She decides it’s time to get her master’s in nursing. 

This time there isn’t going to be any discussion about where she’s going. It’s her time now. It’s her choice now. It’s going to be Russell Sage College. 

“And I loved every minute of it,” Billie says. “It was something I wanted forever and it was everything I expected it to be.”

Though she may not have anticipated all the snow and ice that accumulates on the Taconic Trail between North Adams and Troy. She’s got stories to tell of those dark winter nights going back and forth across the mountains.  

But what Billie’s most interested in talking about are her Sage professors. 

“All of them were incredible,” she says. “They were smart. They’d graduated from really strong schools. And they wanted to get to know all their students. I had so many teachers who I remember thinking – Oh my God, I want to be like her!

“When I left Sage I felt like I could be anyone and do anything. They made me believe the sky’s the limit. And it truly was.”

Today, Billie is Administrative Director of Population Health and Transitions of Care at Southwestern Vermont Health Care. She’s also a fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Nursing. The publishing arm of Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society for nurses, asked her to write “Inspired Healthcare.” The book follows Billie and her team at Southwestern Vermont Health Care as they attempt to solve the most pressing health care delivery problems in America today.

Billie attributes much of her success to her experience at Sage, a time in her life that she calls a “magical adventure.”

“It was transformational,” Billie says. “This little girl from North Adams, Mass. got to do all that she ever hoped and dreamed about.”