‘Voices of Mayo’ features grantee Beba Tata

This article originally published for the Mayo Clinic employee publication Voices of Mayo.

“Voices of Mayo” is a series that highlights Mayo staff and their stories, exploring their diverse backgrounds, the challenges they face, opportunities they have been given, and their experiences at Mayo Clinic. Beba Tata, manager of Spiritual Care at Mayo Clinic in Florida, shares her story of being drawn to Mayo Clinic’s work during her education and eventually finding her way to work at Mayo.

Beba Tata was a health counselor in her native Cameroon when she witnessed people navigating deep existential questions while dealing with HIV/AIDS. The experience made it clear to her that she wanted her life’s work to be about guiding people through their painful journeys and connecting them to their sources of strength and hope.

Tata, manager of Spiritual Care at Mayo Clinic in Florida, shares her story of being immersed in Mayo Clinic’s work during her education and finding her way to Mayo Clinic.

She shares her story below.

Before relocating to the U.S. many years ago, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, but I did not have a name for it. I knew that I wanted to spend my life caring for the sick and suffering, though not as a nurse or a medical doctor. I wanted to sit at the bedside and listen to people’s stories, bring comfort and hope, and serve as a guide and companion through their painful journeys.

As a health counselor in my native Cameroon, I was deeply touched by the stories and experiences of patients with HIV/AIDS. They were stories of isolation and stigma, shame and rejection, as patients navigated deep existential questions and contemplated their own mortality. Many of them turned to their religion and spirituality to make sense of what they were experiencing.

I had no training then in helping people navigate existential questions, nor did I have the resources to offer to help alleviate their distress. But I longed for two things: To accompany and guide people through their painful journeys and help connect them to their sources of strength and coping.

My best option was to further my education, to be formed and informed. I was born of parents who did not have much formal education, whose biggest value was to make sure their children got a solid foundation when it came to schooling.

As an immigrant, I knew that education was the one thing that would give me the opportunities for a better life in the U.S., but those were the most difficult moments of my life.

That is how I found myself at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. There, I obtained my Master of Divinity and learned about clinical pastoral education, which is the training that prepares a person to become a professional chaplain.

After the master’s degree, a person aiming to become a health care chaplain is required to do a clinical pastoral education internship and a residency program in a clinical setting. I completed my internship and first residency at St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, two days after starting this program, I was sent away because I only had my student visa and no work permit. I decided to make the most of the opportunity and offered my services as a volunteer (no pay) for six months until I got my work permit.

As an immigrant, I knew that education was the one thing that would give me the opportunities for a better life in the U.S., but those were the most difficult moments of my life. It was even more challenging in part because my husband, George Mbeng, who is now a nurse, was in nursing school then. I forged on relentlessly and with the encouragement of my hard-working, faith-filled husband. But I believe it was by the grace of God and the support of my husband and our friends that we were able to feed, pay rents, and take public transit every day from our home in Maryland to D.C. to complete my first residency.

It was during my time in D.C. that I learned about Mayo Clinic. My supervisor would always say, “If you want authentic information on any health care topic, Mayo Clinic is the place to go.” I remember citing Mayo Clinic studies in many of my assignments. I would later learn about the rich history of Mayo Clinic and about its values when I went to the job market. The more I read about Mayo Clinic, the more I became convinced that it was the best place for me to put my newly acquired skills to action.

Upon completion of my second residency and a master’s in patient counseling at Virginia Commonwealth University, I applied and was hired as a chaplain at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in 2015. I became a board-certified chaplain in the same year. I spent hours making sure I wrote the best cover letter when I was applying to Mayo Clinic. This was a dream come true for me.

Working at Mayo Clinic, the No. 1 hospital in the nation, was the beginning of a life-changing moment for me. As I walked the hallways, I could not help but think to myself, “Oh, this might be the authors of some of the papers I had read.” I felt like I was on Cloud Nine to be walking around such important people who have contributed so much in the field of health care. It was a daily commitment and inspiration for me to give my best.

Mayo Clinic has been and continues to provide me the opportunity to live my dream of being a compassionate caregiver and a companion and guide to people as they explore hard questions relating to mortality, meaning and identity. Its core value of “The needs of the patient come first” is what continues to keep me going.

Mayo Clinic is a rich and fertile soil where anyone can bloom.

In 2016, I was honored to be selected as one of eight in the nation to become a transforming chaplaincy fellow to complete a Master of Public Health degree through a John Templeton Foundation grant. I obtained my degree from the University of Minnesota in 2018. With spiritual care becoming an evidence-based profession, this degree opened new doors for me in terms of interdisciplinary collaboration and research.

One of the highlights was my collaboration with Kate Piderman, a wonderful mentor and friend, a role model whose work as a chaplain and researcher has greatly contributed to the field of spiritual care. She was the principal investigator of the Hear My Voice Study when I joined Mayo Clinic. I was honored when she invited me to be one of the co-investigators.

The Hear My Voice study involved a spiritual life review with patients with neurologic diseases and other advanced illnesses, and culminated in a spiritual legacy document carrying the patients’ experiences, beliefs, values and life-learned wisdom. I never envisioned myself doing research as a chaplain. But here I was — at Mayo Clinic — participating in research that was impacting health outcomes by improving patients’ spiritual and emotional well-being and quality of life. It would shape my long-term view of our work.

Out of a conversation about identifying spiritual distress in hospital inpatients, I collaborated with Dr. Robert Kirchoff and other Hospital Internal Medicine physicians at Mayo Clinic in Rochester to write a systematic review that drew attention to the importance of a multi-pronged systemic approach to addressing the spiritual care needs of hospitalized patients to enhance the patient experience.

Mayo Clinic is a rich and fertile soil where anyone can bloom — my name is in the search engine next to Mayo Clinic physicians as a chaplain researcher. It is both scary and awesome as I remember my residency days and my supervisor, who would ask us to present reviews only from the cutting-edge work from Mayo Clinic. As a chaplain researcher, I have also partnered with chaplains all over the U.S. and internationally to conduct spiritual care research in improving patient outcomes.

I have worked alongside great people at Mayo Clinic, including my amazing chaplain colleagues in the Department of Spiritual Care in Rochester. Dr. Tim Aksamit, Dr. Andrea Mariani, Dr. Dennis Manning and Dr. Ashok Patel are physicians who have shown me the greatest example of whole-person care, of bringing compassion to the bedside, and of always including the often-forgotten dimension of a patient — the spiritual dimension.

I find great joy in caring for staff in my work units and had wonderful experiences with the Neuro ICU staff in Rochester. A major highlight in my staff care work was when I led the Spiritual Care Department in Rochester in 2020 in obtaining a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation through the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab to support front-line staff during the pandemic.

A kind word and a big smile will spark joy and transform a person’s day.

The biggest highlight for me at Mayo Clinic was the day that the Plummer Building doors were closed to racism and reopened to a more equitable and inclusive future. As one who has been wounded by racism, that was a day of rejoicing for me. My head was raised and my shoulders straightened. I knew better days were ahead. Mayo Clinic was the place for me and an institution that was going to allow my husband and me to flourish and grow in our professions. I sent a thank-you note to Dr. Gianrico with the hope that this commitment would be sustained at Mayo Clinic for generations to come. And he actually replied — again, reinforcing our great workplace.

I was later hired as the manager of Spiritual Care at Mayo Clinic in Florida, the first woman of color since the creation of all the Spiritual Care departments across the enterprise. That is how my husband and I packed our bags in the middle of the pandemic and moved across the nation, from extreme cold to extreme heat.

I came into my new leadership role with three things in mind: justice, kindness and humility. This is my faith, and I knew I would never go wrong as a leader if I acted justly, extended kindness and walked humbly. God has blessed me with an amazing team of chaplains, and together, we are doing great work.

In my culture, we say, “I am because you are, and because you are, I am.” Without my team, I cannot be a leader. We are stronger together to put the Mayo Clinic values into action.

Since my arrival here in Florida, I have met and worked with some awesome people. I have partnered with them to realize many projects to promote staff well-being on the Florida campus, including our Humanities in Medicine colleagues, Nursing leadership and the Well-Being Coalition.

To those following the same path, I would say: “Hold on to your vision. Do not give up. Be committed to giving your best because it takes the little extra that you do every day to create the extraordinary environment that is Mayo Clinic. Do not be afraid to ask questions because out of one conversation, great things can be born.” That has been my experience at Mayo Clinic

Lastly, what continues to inspire me at Mayo Clinic are the RICH TIES values of Respect, Integrity, Compassion, Healing, Teamwork, Innovation, Excellence and Stewardship, and the “Bold. Forward.” vision.

Remember: “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” A kind word and a big smile will spark joy and transform a person’s day.