Supported by 45 years of professional experience, Seleste Lurye Wallace is a retired health care professional who spent her career caring for patients across the state of New York. After being involved in an automobile accident at the age of 18, she became fascinated by the prospect of nursing, having had several registered nurses come to her aid and treat her with the utmost professionalism and compassion. Ms. Wallace was attending college at the time and, initially unsure of her major, decided to pursue the field of nursing. In this regard, she aimed to impact patients in the same way that her nurses impacted her as a young adult.
Ms. Wallace graduated from Corning Community College in New York with an Associate of Applied Science in nursing in 1972 and became a registered nurse the same year. Thereafter, she began her career as a nurse and team leader at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. Remaining there until 1973, she served in the same capacity at Syosset Hospital from 1973 to 1974 and was a head nurse at the Parkview Nursing Home in Massapequa, New York, from 1974 to 1981. From there, Ms. Wallace began a longstanding tenure at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, New York, where she served as a staff clinical nurse II from 1982 to 2003. Prior to her retirement, she was a registered nurse at the New York State Department of Corrections in Fishkill, New York, from 2005 to 2017.
To commemorate her accomplishments in the field, Ms. Wallace was selected for inclusion in the fourth edition of Who’s Who in American Nursing in 1991. Among her several career achievements, she is particularly gratified by helping all her patients, having earned a multitude of positive testimonials and feedback regarding her innate sense of empathy, attentiveness, and due diligence. Notably, she has had many patients return after being discharged from care to show her their gratitude.
Married to Nelson Thomas since 1981, Ms. Wallace has two children, Sarah and Nelson Andrew, and one stepdaughter, Robin. Born in Queens, New York, to parents Philip and Lucille Lurye, she resides in Poughkeepsie, New York. In her leisure time, she enjoys traveling, swimming, weight training, and tapdancing.