‘Exciting and humbling’

Tom Milstead
Posted 12/27/19

Two young Torrington professionals were named to the Wyoming Business Report’s annual 40-Under-40 list last week for their contributions to the community in both their professional roles and other activities, and they just happen to have a few things in common.

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‘Exciting and humbling’

Posted

TORRINGTON – Two young Torrington professionals were named to the Wyoming Business Report’s annual 40-Under-40 list last week for their contributions to the community in both their professional roles and other activities, and they just happen to have a few things in common. 

Zach Miller and Ingrid Long share the same nursing background, they both work at Torrington Community Hospital, they share a love for the community and – in an unrelated note – an office wall. 

That’s why, when the emails arrived to deliver the good news they had been selected to the elite list, they were the first in line to congratulate each other. 

“It was really exciting and humbling,” Long, the Chief Nursing Officer, said. “I had to reread the email a couple times. Wyoming is a big state and so for both of us to have been picked is pretty great.”

“It really is an honor to be selected and there’s some pretty important people on that list – CEOs of mineral companies, volunteer groups and mentorship groups – and I think it just goes to show that younger people can have a dramatic impact if they choose to engage,” Miller, the hospital’s CEO, said. 

The Wyoming Business Report’s 40-Under-40 is a celebration of the early career successes of Wyoming’s brightest business people, according to the WBR’s website. In addition to Long and Miller, two other Torrington residents, Colby Ochsner and Bob Dietzler, were nominated. 

Miller said being selected for the honor is a validation of his efforts in the community. 

“For me, it’s a great honor,” he said. “It’s a great honor to be recognized by the Wyoming Business Report for that and for the nomination that was made. Someone really has great faith in me. I think it’s my work here and in the community is what drives me and so this is really an extra validation of that. I’m really humbled and honored by that.”

Miller started his career in healthcare when he was 18 years old as an EMT and a CNA. Since then, he’s earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and made the most of the opportunities he’s had. 

“I kind of worked my way up through the nursing side of things,’ he said. “I was a bedside clinician for about a year and a half when I was asked to take my first leadership role. From there it has just kind of been people encouraging me to do a couple of things. I’ve only applied outside of my organization twice. 

Once was when I wanted to move to Phoenix and I worked for a for-profit company that time,” Miller said. “I decided I wanted to work for a non-profit, and so the other time was when I moved back to Banner. It has been people tapping me on the shoulder and saying ‘hey, I think this is a good role for you’ and really, saying yes.”

Long worked her way up through opportunities in nursing, as well. She’s worked in Torrington for 10 years of her 15 years in the practice, and like Miller, she’s made the most of her opportunities. 

“I have grown up in leadership roles here,” she said. “I started out as a perioperative manager and just climbed a ladder, which I think is awesome that you can do that within Banner. They give you a lot of great opportunities if you if you want to pursue them. I feel very fortunate to be with this organization and be living in the town that I love.”

Miller and Long are both involved in the community outside of work, as well. 

Miller serves on the Goshen County School District Board of Trustees and the Goshen County Economic Development Corporation Board. He does it because he wants his generation to have a voice. 

“I’ve always had an interest in politics in general, and I am fearful that not many individuals in our age group are active in that way,” he said. “There’s not a voice that represents the majority of child-bearing parents, people raising kids, active on boards and in local and state government. It takes a lot of time but I think it is an important voice to be at the table.”

Long is involved in the Rotary Club, and sits on the board for the Torrington American Legion Baseball team. She believes Torrington is a great community, and she wants to do her part in keeping it that way. 

“I just think that this is a great place to raise a family and to move to,” she said. “When you come to Torrington, sometimes because of the wind or through the ruralness of it, people don’t always see that. I like to recruit new families and show them that we’ve got some established activities for youth and supporting each other through things like Rotary, other businesses, helping make each other feel like you have a family within the community, not just your own actual family.”

Miller echoed his colleague’s belief that Torrington has a lot to offer. Recently, both Miller and Long played a role in establishing a nursing program at Eastern Wyoming College, and Miller said that is an example of some of the opportunities Torrington has to offer. 

“There is a lot of untapped potential,” he said. “I think one of the things I have seen from work is our partnership with EWC – helping with the nursing program, and fostering a new professional program that was here before I think is really a good thing. 

“I think that there’s opportunity for others to see the benefit of the community, as well. We have excellent schools,” Miller said. “We have teachers that are dedicated here and I think that it is a great place to raise kids. Healthcare and education – those two things are both vital to any community, but especially small towns. If you lose either of those in a small town, the town goes by the wayside, as well. It’s important to make sure that those organizations are healthy going forward.”

While Torrington and Goshen County have fallen on some hard times in recent years with the loss of hundreds of jobs at the Western Sugar processing facility and crops damaged by a collapsed irrigation canal in July and an early snowstorm in October, Long said there’s still a lot to believe in – and find hope in – for the future. 

“I think it really is the residents of Goshen County and this community itself,” she said. “I think that you just see how people come together and help out. We’re always trying to think of new ways to bring new providers in or and partner with different organizations in the community to strengthen both parties, and so we’re going to continue to do that and hopefully continue to have jobs to offer people and be a vital part of this of this town.”