Tim AdamsTim Adams, FASHE, CHFM, CHC, CLSS-HC, can't imagine any work more gratifying than the work he's spent his life engaged in. But when he graduated high school, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do. In fact, he changed colleges once and majors twice unti he finally decided to study electrical engineering technology with a specialization in biomedical technology. Then, because he already had a family to support, while going to college he also worked 40 hours a week at a local school system -- first as a truck mechanic and then as a facilities maintenance technician. It was while working in maintenance that he discovered he liked figuring out heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems -- so much so that he added HVAC design classes to his course load "just for fun," never suspecting that they would actually come in handy someday. His goal back then was to work in the medical technology field. To that end, he took a job with a small company that did clinical engineering for hospitals. Tim enjoyed the work as well as talking with hospital facilities people and helping them problem-solve to get ready for compliance surveys. One of the problem-solving experiences was when a hospital called his company in desperate need of someone who could take over management of the facilities immediately -- the very next day. With his previous hands-on experience, and the work he had been doing with assisting facilities managers with regulatory and technical issues, Tim readily accepted the assignment and, with one of his coworkers, jumped into the task. Tim loved the work -- once again never realizing that it was preparing him for the rest of his career. After all, he still thought of himself as a clinical engineer. When he left the company he'd been working for, it was to take a job as a clinical engineer at a Bloomington, Indiana, hospital because that's the town where he and his wife wanted to live. Upon his arrival there, though, he found he'd inherited a major rework of electrical systems, fire alarm systems and work on planning, design and construction (PDC) projects -- in addition to his clinical engineering responsibilities. Luckily, Tim has always been guided by the impulse to go where he is most needed, so he felt "meant to be there." Just how did he handle all that, though? First, he was careful not to step so far into uncharted territory that he made a mess of something. Second, he sought help by attending his first American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) conference and reaching out to the people at the Indiana Society for Healthcare Engineering (ISHE). To his great relief, he found that he could say to the folks at ISHE, "I need some help with something, [but] I hardly know what it is," and they would come have lunch and take a look. Since then, Tim has returned the favor countless times and enjoyed a lifetime of camaraderie while tackling truly meaningful and interesting work. Read More Read Less