Spotlight on NWF’s Tammy Mishey

Tammy is from a small town on the Florida/Alabama state line called Paxton, Florida. It is located in Walton County. She has worked in child welfare since 1992 when she started as a Secretary Specialist with HRS. She went from a Secretary to a Family support worker and worked for HRS/DCF and Families First Network. Tammy then worked for United Methodist Children’s Home/Embrace Florida Kids as a Foster Parent Liaison. She obtained a degree in Human Services with a specialty in Child and Family Services from Southern New Hampshire University and worked as a Licensing Specialist before moving to Families First Network as a Placement Supervisor. She then became a Level One Licensing Supervisor and is now a Kinship Manager.

“I feel blessed to be part of such a wonderful agency & lead such a wonderful team at NWF Health Network . My time in this career has been filled with many stories and many children and families. When I was a family support worker, I would say that I had 100+ children. Over the years, I have seen children that I have worked with who are now adults in the community who come up and give me a big hug. Those are the hugs that we work so hard for. I have loved every minute that I have spent working with children and families. I know that this is what I was meant to do. I thought at one time that I wanted to be a Florida Wildlife Officer, but this did not work out for me. God led me back to a career in child welfare.”

Tammy has some sage advice for new social workers: “always treat families with respect and empathy because in life we are only one step away from being in the same situation.”

In her spare time, Tammy loves to spend time with her family. “Family is so very important to me. We love to go boating/fishing, out to eat, baseball/football games, walking, hunting and movies. We love just hanging out together.”

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our team, Tammy!