Finding Remote Work in the Medical Field

This article is part of NTI@Home’s #WorkforceWednesday series, celebrating 30 years of the ADA by showcasing employment opportunities available for the 1 in 4 Americans with disabilities.

When Leanne Boyce was young, like so many little girls, she dreamed of being a nurse.

“I was in the hospital a lot when I was tiny,” said the Murfeesboro, Tennesee, resident. “Being on the other side of the bed seemed exciting. I always wanted to be involved in helping people."

Indeed, Leanne has made a career of helping those in her community. She earned a degree in social work from the University of Tennessee-Martin and right out of college became Executive Director at People First Tennessee, a grassroots disability rights group led by self-advocates. She also spends time volunteering on boards at her local hospital and library.

Leanne has recently found a way to work in the health care field, as a call center supervisor for Celgene, a large global pharmaceutical company. Based in Summit, New Jersey, Celgene develops medicine, and the call center agents are involved in reaching out to the patients to see how they are doing.

“This was the perfect fit,” said Boyce. “It’s in the medical field and I’m working with the population I had been working with for close to 20 years.”

“People like Leanne bring so much with their experience and desire to help others,” said Alan Hubbard, chief operating officer of NTI, the nonprofit that matches disabled people with remote work opportunities. “When you give a job to someone like Leanne, who is committed to helping people, it helps your organization become very successful.”

NTI has trained and placed nearly 5,000 people with disabilities in work-from-home jobs. As a Celgene call center supervisor, Boyce oversees several NTI agents and helps them grow their skills through the free NTI University online platform.

Working for NTI is something that has kept Leanne able to fulfill her lifelong career goal of helping people.

“There’s a culture of genuine interest in helping you succeed,” said Boyce. “We’re all very close and we make a real great team. It feels different than the other customer services positions. I am able to help and be an advocate for people. It is almost like what I was doing before.”

While Leanne has worked on projects for several companies under the NTI umbrella, Celgene tops the list.

“This job kind of fell into my lap,” she said. “This is my favorite job since I started with NTI.”

When she has vacation time, Boyce likes to see as much of the country as possible. She had been to most of the states and major cities, including to Boston, where NTI’s headquarters are located.

NTI@Home, a 501 (c ) (3) nonprofit organization, helping Americans with disabilities find job opportunities in call centers for government organizations, Fortune 500, and large and small companies. You can register for free at www.ntiathome.org to receive free job training and job placement services.