2021 Travel Team Member Feature: Dustin Jewell

We are excited to continue our new blog series! In this series, we highlight members of our incredible 2021 Travel Team who will accompany us during Mission 2021 to Antigua, Guatemala. 

Travel Team Members generously volunteer their time, talent, and energy toward our goal: providing the gift of mobility to patients in need. From October 2nd through October 9th 2021, we will be in Antigua to accomplish that goal.

This year’s trip to Antigua will be our sixth to Guatemala, and our eleventh trip overall. We thoroughly enjoy the time we spend at Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro, our partner hospital in Antigua, which we affectionately call our home away from home. We love the staff there and truly think of them all as family. 

Let’s turn our attention to our next featured Travel Team Member, Dustin Jewell! Dustin earned two certifications from the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Material Management. The first of those is the Certified Registered Central Service Technician (CRCST) certification, and the second is the Certified Endoscope Reprocessor (CER) certification. The CRCST certification shows that Dustin has the experience, knowledge and skills necessary to provide competent services as a central service/sterile processing technician. CRCSTs are members of the healthcare team responsible for decontaminating, inspecting, assembling, disassembling, packaging and sterilizing reusable surgical instruments or devices in healthcare facilities following any surgery or procedure, including total joint replacement surgery. Dustin has made a career at UPMC hospitals doing this of this incredible and vitally important work, and will bring his experience and skills with him on Operation Walk Pittsburgh’s Mission 2021 as one of our sterile technicians! Dustin will make sure that all surgical trays, instruments, and tools are sterilized, assembled and ready before each joint surgery.

Dustin is a native of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, but is a proud resident of Pittsburgh today. His mother was a home healthcare worker, and later a nursing home administrator, and he believes that the work that she did put him on the healthcare path as well. After high school, Dustin got a job at a nursing home where he followed his mother’s footsteps. Later on, he obtained a position at UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital, and now uses his skills daily at UPMC Mercy. 

While Dustin is a hard-working healthcare professional, he makes sure to find time for his passion, dance fitness. Dustin is a Zumba instructor with eight licenses, and carries a wide variety of knowledge on the subject. He enjoys Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington, and also enjoys traveling. His favorite trip was to the west coast, where he spent time in Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California.

All of our Travel Team Members work hard to meet a fundraising goal, helping to cover a portion of the total cost of critically needed supplies and equipment for Mission 2021. We are deeply thankful for each and every one of our Travel Team Members’ support, including Dustin’s!

“My excitement comes from the ability to offer the level of medical care and opportunities that some of these people may not have ever had. I also am excited to be able to meet new people that do the same types of jobs that we do every day from various parts of the world.” - Dustin

Please consider making a donation in Dustin’s name to support his fundraising commitment. Remember, 100% of all donations made to Operation Walk Pittsburgh directly support patient care during the mission. Will you help Dustin reach his fundraising goal?