At UF Health, we believe our staff is among the most committed in the health care industry. Our employees’ passion for providing quality patient care and service and their genuine desire to move our organization forward makes this such a strong and successful organization able to meet our patients’ needs. Many of our employees have spent over 10 years with us, and some have even spent 40 years or more! From name changes to new hospitals, these employees have evolved along with our organization and helped propel us forward. Each year, we recognize our long-term employees for their contributions at the annual Milestones Service Awards banquet.

Kristi Gaver, UF Health Shands Human Resources Employee Relations event planner and project coordinator, works with a team to oversee each detail of the event. They spend months planning to ensure that attendees feel like stars.

“My goal is to create an experience that is fun, memorable and meaningful to each guest,” Gaver said. “It is so rewarding to hear guests ‘oooh’ and ‘ahhh’ about the décor, sing along to music in the program or laugh at jokes in the script.”