Halo House Hero – Bill Kersten

Bill is our Halo House Hero for July. Bill first learned about Halo House while he was volunteering at MD Anderson on the inpatient stem cell transplantation floor and talking to a stem cell patient who told him his wife was back at Halo House taking a nap. Intrigued and curious to know what Halo House was, Bill googled us and decided to apply to become a volunteer.

Bill comes to us as a retired director of management and operations for the Children’s Learning Institute at UT Health. Before his time at UT Health, Bill worked at MD Anderson as the clinical business manager for the stem cell transplantation outpatient clinic before switching to the palliative care department as their operations manager and then back to the stem cell transplantation outpatient clinic. Bill served for 8 years as the executive director of Bering Omega Community Services in Houston, a nonprofit that assists individuals affected by HIV and AIDS. Bill’s experience as an executive director of a non-profit as well as his time at UT Health and MD Anderson make him a very resourceful Halo House volunteer.

When Bill started college, he wanted to become a physician because he sought out the direct contact physicians get to have with patients. Once in college, Bill enjoyed accounting courses more than organic chemistry and thus ended up earning a degree in business. Bill later pursued a master’s degree in health administration. Bill enjoyed working in administration but knew that in retirement he wanted to do something where he could get the face-to-face interaction with patients that he had always hoped for.

When volunteering at Halo House, Bill loves “talking with guests and their family members and finding out where they are from and what stage of treatment they are in”. Bill always has a smile on his face and is always eager to help in any way that he can. We are so lucky to have Bill as one of our Halo House Heroes!