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Maine Nurse Named One of Time's 'Person of the Year' Ebola Fighters

Patty Wight
/
MPBN

Maine-based international aid nurse Kaci Hickox says the honor bestowed on her and others by Time Magazine is important because it highlights the hard work still being done by thousands of people in West Africa, and elsewhere, to combat the deadly Ebola virus.

Time has collectively honored all Ebola fighters of 2014 as its "Person of the Year."

Hickox - who volunteered as a nurse in Sierra Leone earlier this year - says that while material and financial help are crucial, none of it would work without human volunteers.

"You know, you can build a clinic all day long," she says, "but if you don't have staff that are trained and understand how to run that clinic safely, then you're still not meeting the needs of Ebola."

Hickox defied state-imposed quarantines after returning from West Africa, where she had treated Ebola patients. She said she was acting on behalf of all health care workers who returned after working to contain the disease.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.
Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.