Funeral arrangements for Oakland County Health Officer Calandra Green – The Oakland Press

Pontiac resident Calandra Green’s work as a nurse affected thousands of county residents. After her May 11 death, a fundraising effort is underway to establish the Calandra Green Scholarship Fund.

She was shot by her husband, Charles Green, at their Pontiac home. He took his own life. Oakland County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the case.

Now Green is being remembered as a woman of deep faith and a member of the choir at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Pontiac. Her nursing work was as much a mission as a job – a cadre of nurses, patients and others shared stories on social media of her as a mentor, advisor and advocate.

Green is survived by her parents, Robert and Gennie Hammond; daughter, Casey Lee Anderson; siblings Charlotte Marshall, Sikande Stewart and Rodriguez Hammond; a large extended family and wide circle of friends, according to her obituary.

As the county’s quality and process improvement supervisor, Green became an essential part of the county’s public-health response to COVID-19, especially as school nurse liaison. She hired, trained and deployed 68 nurses to 28 public school districts and 125 private or charter schools. That’s how Pontiac resident and city councilman Mike McGuinness got to know her.

“This pain cuts deep for many of us in Pontiac,” he said. “When I was Pontiac School Board president during the pandemic, it was Dr. Green who worked closely with our school district to prevent outbreaks. She was always a joyful spirit and a hardworking leader who really cared about others.”

In 2022, she became the county’s first Black health officer.

Green coordinated Macedonia Missionary Baptist’s health fair, helping nearly 500 members of the congregation get vaccinations – and her efforts were pivotal in launching COVID-19 testing at other churches in the county.

In addition to graduating from Pontiac Northern High School, she earned the first of four degrees, an associate’s in nursing at Oakland Community College; two degrees at Baker College: a master’s in business administration and bachelor’s in health services administration. Among her proudest achievements was a doctorate in organizational leadership, earned in 2020 from Oakland University, where she also earned a post-master’s certificate in lean leadership.

Oakland University recognized Green with the Nightingale Award for Excellence in Community Nursing in 2021.

Her career included nursing at McLaren Oakland from 2007 to 2018, with her final as vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer. She joined the county in 2019 and was promoted to health officer in 2022.

From 1993 to 2007 she started as a manager of obstetrics and went on to manage the neonatal intensive-care union at North Oakland Medical Centers in Pontiac.

After the 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School, she organized a mental-health response.

Visitation is noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, May 21, at Cobb’s Funeral Home151 Orchard Lake Road in Pontiac. A family gathering is planned for 10:30 to 11 a.m. Monday at the funeral home with services at 11 a.m. at Welcome Missionary Baptist Church, 143 Oneida St. in Pontiac.

People can make donations to the Calandra Green Scholarship Fund via CashApp: $clgnurses; Zelle: (248) 884-9156 or Venmo: @calandrasnightingales.