Brenda Oberstein Ashkar
FSC 1963
My name is Brenda Oberstein Ashkar. I was born in New York City
on March 27, 1942. I am the middle child of Hyman and Esther
Oberstein. We moved to Burbank, CA in 1953 after my father died
suddenly of a heart attack. My mother was appalled that I wanted to
be a nurse and insisted that I go to college. The BSN programs were
just beginning so 2 of my high school classmates, Mary Shumway
Tolle and Margo Reynolds Derry decided on Fresno State and we
began in the fall of 1959. We graduated in June 1963, and went our
separate ways, but remained great friends. My favorite nursing
instructor was Altoon Bogosian. I remember being panicked by Med-Surg and didn’t
find my calling until OB and public health.
My first job was in the delivery room at UC San Francisco. I went to UCSF with another
FSC grad, Sharon Welch and we roomed together for a year. In the summer of 1966, I
resigned my position to travel to Europe with a friend. We spent 5 months touring by rail
and ship and went to England, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands,
Belgium, France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Israel, Spain, and
Portugal. I met my husband, Salim while on ship traveling
between Greece and Israel. He had been working in Denmark
and was returning home to Israel. He introduced me to his
family and it was instant attraction. After I returned home we
corresponded. I worked in the delivery room at Cedars of
Lebanon and in May, 1966 I took a job in a hospital in
HjØrring, Denmark. This job was arranged through the
American Nurses Association Exchange of Privileges Program
allowing me to use my California RN license to work as a
Danish nurse. Salim had returned to Denmark to work and I
was joining him. We married in Denmark on September 8, 1967. I continued to work in
the newborn nursery there and learned Danish. In January, 1968 we arrived in California.
I joined the Los Angeles Unified School District TB prevention program in early 1968
while waiting for an opening with the Los Angeles Count Health Department. I did
summer relief for the Probation Camps in 1968 and in the fall became a district PHN at
Central District Health Center until my son, Steven was born on July 1, 1969. By that
time we had bought a house in Carson, CA and I transferred to San Pedro Health Center.
Our daughter, Susan was born on September 14, 1971. In 11/73 I became the
Tuberculosis Liaison PHN at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center then transferred to
Harbor/UCLA Medical Center. In this job, I educated patients and staff about TB and
arranged outpatient care for the TB patients. It was my happiest time in nursing. In
1979 I was promoted to Assistant Program Specialist at TB Control and in 1980 became
the Program Specialist. As TB increased in L.A. and the U.S. our program became larger
and more complicated. My job responsibilities increased as did my title and soon I found
myself Nurse Manager and Nursing Director for the program. The program grew from 8
nurses to 35 nurses who consulted with health department staff and I began to give
lectures through out the U.S. and overseas. These included presentations at the American
Thoracic Society, International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, and California State
TB Controllers Assn meetings as well as TB courses in Bucharest, Romania, Paris,
France, and Eindhoven, Netherlands. I was a faculty member and presenter in TB
Frontline, a satellite TV broadcast to TB healthcare workers throughout the U.S.
In 1991 I received the degree of Masters in Nursing from California State University,
Dominguez Hills and in addition to my job, taught community health nursing lab courses
for Cal State L.A. and Cal State Dominguez Hills and lectured at Cal State Long Beach.
I am a member of Sigma Theta Tau.
I became active in national TB nurse groups and in 1995 was elected as the first president
of the National TB Nurse Consultant Coalition. I was on the Executive Board of the
California TB Controllers Association (CTCA) and in 1999 I was the first nurse to ne
presented with the Henry A. Renteln Award by the CTCA for dedicated service to
tuberculosis control in California. I have several publications in journals and was coauthor of a TB nursing manual. I retired in March, 2000 after 30+ years with L.A.
County, but didn’t retire from TB. I had been in TB control for most of my career and
was very knowledgeable. I was hired as a nurse consultant with the National TB Center
in San Francisco and have been teaching TB courses around the country. Being able to
consult and teach and no longer supervise staff made this the perfect retirement.
My husband, Salim, and I have been married almost 41 years. He
retired in 2001 after 30 years as an aircraft mechanic with American
Airlines and we moved from the Los Angeles area to Coarsegold which
is in the foothills outside Fresno. We had kept close contact with Mary
and Jim Tolle and moved there to be near them. Because of Salim’s
airline benefits we have travelled extensively throughout our marriage.
Our son, Steven, has a BA form UC Riverside and is a deputy sheriff
for San Diego County. He is married and has 2 sons, Ryan, 6, and
Caden, 9 months. Our daughter, Susan, has a B.A. from UCLA and
M.A. from Cal State Long Beach. She is married and is a Research
Analyst in the Immunization Program at LA County Health
Department. We love visiting our children and grandsons in Southern
California.