In September of 2000, a physician and a minister came together with a vision that all Clayton County residents should have access to medical care without consideration for their ability to pay. Since the once a week schedule of seeing patients the Good Shepherd Clinic hasgrown to where they are offering primary health care, acute care, lab testing, health education classes, mental health counseling, pharmaceutical assistance programs and much more. They have over 3000 patient visits each year.

Each year the Good Shepherd Clinic honors five “Pillars of the Community” This year the Business Pillar of the Community was PDG Claudia Mertl from the Rotary Club of Lake Spivey/Clayton County.

Many of us know PDG Claudia for all her work with District 6900. Since she was Governor in 2005-2006, she has served many times as District Trainer (a role she holds for our 2019-20 Rotary year), as well as on the Zone membership team. And Claudia still serves at the club level, this year as Public Image Director and President’s advisor.

Here’s a little of what the event program had to say about Claudia that you might not know:

“Claudia Tucker Mertl was born in Memphis, Tennessee and grew up on a horse ranch in Harlem, GA, near Augusta. She attended Georgia Southern University where she received both her BS and Master’s degrees in Recreation Administration.

She taught classes in the Recreation curriculum at Georgia Southern. She was voted "Alumni of the Year" for Georgia Southern University College of Health and Professional studies. She was recently inducted into the Alumni Honorees Society.

She was Assistant Director of the Clayton County Parks and Recreation Department. Claudia was President of the Georgia Parks & Recreation Association, Chairman of the Board of the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce where she received the Small Business Person of the Year award and the National Athena Award for women in business. She is a graduate of the Georgia Regional Leadership Institute and has received the prestigious Carl Rhodenizer Community Service Award, presented by the Clayton County Chamber of Commerce. She served as Secretary on Clayton County Private Industry Council, served on the Board at Reynolds Nature Preserve and chaired the State Board of Recreation Examiners.

She was the chairman of the Clayton County Unit of the American Cancer Society and is an honorary life member of the Board.

She served on the Georgia Board of Corrections for ten years and on the Metro United Way Board.She received the Spivey Leadership Award from United Way for outstanding community service.

She is a former Chair of the Southern Regional Medical Center Foundation Board.”