Virginia Subia RN BSN
President
Virginia Subia, RN, BSN, PHN, is the founder of the Tan Seva Project. Virginia’s journey into the health care profession began in 1989, when she moved with her partner and daughter from Southern California to Humboldt County, California.
After graduating from Humboldt State University’s Nursing Program in May of 1996, Virginia began to explore areas of nursing that both resonated with her and intrigued her, including labor and delivery, emergency room, PACU, forensic nursing, and, finally, home health. Each of these areas led her intuitively toward deepening and developing her abilities as a caregiver: while working in labor and delivery at Mad River Community Hospital, she became a Prenatal Educator, emphasizing Postpartum Care and the New Parent; while working in PACU, she participated in an intensive study of Pain Management. It was, however, when she began her work with Mad River Community Hospital’s Home Health Department, that she began to consciously focus on her relationship as a caregiver engaged with her patients in the transformative process that is the end of life. It was this focus that led her to become a student at the Metta Institute, an organization based out of the San Francisco Zen Center that trains caregivers to be holistic end-of-life counselors who consciously turn toward the sacred and mysterious nature of the dying process.
As a graduation requirement of the Metta Institute, Virginia was asked to create an art project that represented her experience as a caregiver for those in the end-of-life process. The project that manifested was a woven shawl, made on a back-strap loom that was handmade by a Humboldt local. It was during the creation of this art project that the seeds of the Tan Seva Project began to germinate, and the question that kept resurfacing in her mind was this: what do licensed and unlicensed caregivers do to care for themselves, and nurture their spirit both personally and professionally? As the idea for a community organization that focused on deepening the capacity of the licensed and unlicensed caregiver engaged in the end-of-life process through community dialogue and self-care began to flesh itself out, it was met with much grassroots support from Virginia’s community in Humboldt County. After refining its mission and vision, Virginia brought the concept and message of the Tan Seva Project with her to the Sigma Theta Tau Leadership Academy, who received it with great enthusiasm, and nominated Virginia to take part in the Harvard GoodWorks® Project as a result. As she continued to network and bring the vision of the Tan Seva Project to nurses from around the country and world, it was not only met with excitement and gratitude, but also resulted in invitations for Virginia to participate in other projects that supported the Tan Seva Project’s mission, such as the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative.
Currently, Virginia continues her work at the bedside in Humboldt County, but is primarily engaged in creating inspired learning opportunities for the Tan Seva Project in collaboration with Dr. Charles Garfield and the End of Life Nursing Consortium. Additionally, she is a clinical instructor for the Humboldt State University Nursing Department, and a participant in Shambhala Warrior Training at the Shambhala Center in Berkeley. Her current vision is to explore, as an agent of peace, the farther reaches of her nature in relationship to the world around her, to live into and demonstrate to her professional community that there is no conflict between professional excellence and good work, and to meet these goals with the creativity, skill, passion and intention of an artist. Virginia is deeply thankful for her daughter Miquette (her first spiritual teacher), her partner Marc, her Wisdom Keepers and Spirit Guides, and the gentle, gracious support of her community, friends and family.