By Morgan Pilz, Staff Writer

(May 16, 2019) Camilla Rogers, 65, has lived in Ocean Pines for just over a year, but that hasn’t stopped her from deciding to run for the Board of Directors.

Rogers, a native Marylander, has lived in a lot of places traveling with her husband. She earned her degree as a registered nurse from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. She received her masters in nursing at the University of Maryland and received her Nurse Practitioner’s certification. She is a licensed pediatric nurse practitioner.

She taught nursing in several universities and then went into hospital administration. Rogers was a hospital administrator at several hospitals, and her last position in nursing was in an executive position at Sheppard Pratt Health in Towson, Maryland. At age 50, she decided to change her career and went to law school.

Using her expertise in law, health and medicine, Rogers wants to better represent children, nurses and physicians as well as bring more transparency to the board.

“I have a keen interest in representing those people as well and try to be honest and forthright with the board because we can’t have public safety compromised,” Rogers said. “There’s been a lot of consternation between the board and the general public.”

Despite these concerns, Rogers believes the current board has done very well in the year she has lived in the association.

“Some of these people are really, really, really smart people, and I think that they have moved some agendas forward like getting the management company in here,” Rogers said. “That was a brilliant move as far as I’m concerned. It is wonderful to see that they have allocated resources, for instance, to the yacht club. It’s always thrilling to me to go up there and see how well subscribed to that is.”

Rogers wants to continue moving things in the right direction for the community by bringing more transparency to board meetings.

“This community has a lot going for it and I think it’s very important for the board to maintain a transparent relationship with the people that are here,” Rogers said. “This is their forever homes, and they I think if we had some more forums [where] we had some involvement, it really would help people understand what the board is trying to achieve so that the general public feels that they have more input.”

Following transparency, she also believes communication with the association members is just as important.

“I think good communication with those that you serve is always important,” Rogers said. “I just kind of wonder from time to time when I hear these stories, if those that are involved in this can’t be doing a little bit more mediation, or someone within the board can do a little bit more mediation so that they become more effective in their activities and don’t try to align forces one against the other.

“It just seems to me that there seems to be some problem when people are dropping off and there are vacancies in the board,” she continued. “I think people should be excited about this and clamoring for positions.”

Above all, Rogers is excited to assist her community, which has welcomed her so warmly last year.

“When we made the decision to move down here, I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ll never have any friends, I’ve got this tight knit social of friends,’” Rogers said. “We moved in Jan. 17, 2018. By Christmas, I had a Christmas party in our house and I had 47 people here that I didn’t know in January that have all become friends. This is a really, really wonderful community.”