Sheila Zywiec Geib, R.N., Nurs '72
Distinguished Alumna inService to Nursing Award
College of Nursing
Distinguished Alumna in Service to Nursing Award
Sheila Zywiec Geib, R.N., Nurs '72
Drawing nursing inspiration from two mothers — her own and Mother Teresa — Sheila Geib learned the art of nurturing and the grace of being humble.
Ministering daily to allergy patients, she has the chance to help people improve their quality of life with proper treatment. She also helps maintain the operations of Jefferson's Rock River Free Clinic in Jefferson, Wis., where she volunteers as a nurse, works as a volunteer coordinator and is on the board of directors. Of her work there, Sheila says, "When you look into the grateful eyes of a patient you've helped, you feel like you are making the world a little bit better."
Sheila learned how to attend to others by watching her mother take care of their family, and her interest in health care came in high school, when she worked as a hospital ward clerk. After graduating from Marquette and marrying her college sweetheart, Donnell Geib, she worked in pediatrics and then primarily became a stay-at-home mom to their six children. But she never lost touch with the nursing field, retaining her license and working in health care jobs that coincided with her children's school schedules.
Sheila is grateful for her Marquette education, successful nursing career, and marriage and family. At one point, she thought she should aspire to a higher-profile position, but now she knows there is much to be gained in life's simplest things. Or, to quote Mother Teresa: "We must know that we have been created for greater things ... not just to go for ... this work and that work. We have been created in order to love and be loved."
Fun facts about Sheila
Her Marquette love story: "I have been married to my college sweetheart, Donnell Geib, for 37 years. I met Don about two weeks after arriving at Marquette my freshman year, and it was truly love at first site. We dated during my four years at Marquette — my father said he would not pay for my college if I was married. I graduated on a Sunday, and we were married the following Saturday."
