24 • GCU TODAY
Have Diploma, Will Travel
GCUgraduate turnsmaster’s degree intoanadventure inQatar
for her andher family
T
here are no tiny patients born too
early for their own good, no new
mothers wrung out with worry over
their babies’ ragged breaths, no
nurses rushing to respond to jarring alarms in
Marla Booker’s new workplace.
In fact, the neonatal intensive care unit
(NICU) at Sidra Medical and Research Center,
which Booker has been hired to help staff and
run, isn’t open yet. But there’s still plenty for
this Grand Canyon University alumna to do in
a place that could not be more different from
where she spent her entire adult life, as a wife,
mother, nurse and hospital administrator.
In November, not 30 days after walking
across the GCU Arena stage to accept her
diploma for a master’s degree in health care
administration, Booker moved 6,600 miles
from her longtime home in Connecticut to
Qatar, a small, oil-rich nation on the coast
of the Persian Gulf. Ending a 25-year career
at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in
Hartford, she is helping create a state-of-the-
art hospital for women and children in the
capital city of Doha.
It was a bold move for anyone but especially
for someone who, at age 47, never had traveled
outside North America other than on a
backpacking excursion to Thailand six years ago.
“That trip was the beginning of my
realization there is so much out there I have
not been exposed to that I really would like my
kids to explore,” she said. “I wanted to open up
the world to them.”
And Booker wanted to use her new
degree. So, three days after Christmas Day,
Marla, her husband, Jason, and three of
their four children, Evan, 16, and 14-year-old
twins, Ally and Liam, relocated to Qatar,
the richest country in the world, according
to Forbes. Son Kyle, 17, joined them in early
February, days after meeting criteria for an
early high school graduation.
The family lives in a fully furnished,
four-bedroom villa in a compound for Sidra
employees, most of whom are from Australia
and the United Kingdom. The Bookers are
getting to know their new homeland, basking
at the beach in early spring temperatures
30 degrees warmer than back home and
marveling at the bustle of new construction.
They’ve even ridden camels.
Such an adventure never would have been
possible without GCU.
Finding a global purpose
Booker’s nursing degree from the University
of St. Joseph in West Hartford, Conn., gave
her sufficient knowledge and skills to rise in
her career over two decades, from nurse to
assistant nurse manager to nurse manager
to NICU director. But as health care began
to change with technological advancements,
GCU
Alumni
B Y J A N I E M A G R U D E R
Less than a month after
graduating last fall from
GCU, Marla Booker moved
to Doha, Qatar, joining
health professionals from
around the world who are
building a new hospital for
women and children.
photo by hassan
sheikh
,
sidra
medical and research center
