By Shannon Wright

Mandi Sills Hart is making an impact on women’s lives from Minden to Monroe.

You may have heard of her – she and her husband are the proud owners of the ice cream shop in downtown Minden called Shug’s. She is Shug.

She has many accolades, including being the immediate Past Chair of the Greater Minden Chamber executive board and Webster Parish’s Top 15 Under 40, so it’s no wonder she was chosen by the University of Louisiana’s Women’s Symposium Board to be one of the three panelists to represent the Health Sciences track of this year’s convention.

She shared the stage with two other women in medicine – one being Sarah Hummel Gregory who is also from Monroe but owns Southern Roots Dentistry which has an office in Minden.

The room was filled to capacity with young ladies and women who were considering a career in medicine or pondering a career change, as well as other women who were simply interested in the topic of discussion.

The panel discussed topics such as contending with practitioner burn-out, patient frustration and insurance roadblocks.

Then, each panelist was asked how they became involved in their particular line of work and what they like most about it.

Hart said that she started out in Medical Technology but knew that was not for her because she wasn’t able to talk to people. Being a people-person, she turned to nursing and found her calling in Labor and Delivery in Monroe.

She met the man who is now her husband, and he lived in Minden so she moved to Minden from Monroe. She recalls telling him she would work in Shreveport, but he suggested that she work at Minden Medical Center.

“I did not want to work at that country hospital,” Hart recalled. “It was small.”

However, she said, “The minute I walked into Minden Medical Center and felt the family and community that’s there, I fell in love.”

She was surprised, too. That country hospital, as she had called it before, serviced all the surrounding communities and those people came to Minden to deliver their babies. The hospital had an 8-bed labor unit and a C-Section suite, “anything you would see at a bigger hospital,” she said. “I thrived in labor and delivery, and I had fun with my moms – it was a miracle most every day.”

She transitioned into the business side of the medical field after she became a mom to triplets, but she believes she can still make a difference by being that voice for the patients at the table with other people who are strictly business minded.

She feels she brings something different to the table because of her past experience.

Hart shined a light on the City of Minden as she represented not only herself but also the entire community in her presentation to the ladies at the University of Louisiana in Monroe.

“Being in a room filled with fellow trailblazers was a powerful reminder – both to me and to young women – that we can achieve anything when we empower and lift each other up,” she said. “The symposium’s theme, Transitions, was a perfect reflection of life’s unexpected paths. We may not always end up where we planned, but if we embrace change and nurture growth, beauty can bloom in the transition.”

Through her love and passion for Minden, she feels she can be an example to other ladies to uphold their civic duty by becoming involved in their hometown community and Webster Parish.

“You don’t have to be in a big city to do big things,” she said. “We can make a meaningful impact wherever God has planted us.”