A Passage of Advocacy and Listening: How My Name and Experiences Shaped My Purpose in Healthcare

By Typhany Morrison-Brooks

I was born Madelyn Morrison without a middle name because my mother wanted me to have the space to choose one someday. I arrived a couple of months early, weighing just 4 pounds. They had already picked “Madelyn” for me, but as I lay in the incubator, I flipped myself over, earning a laugh from the doctor. He told my mom, “This baby’s fine. Take her out and clean her up. She’s going home.” My mother saw this as an epiphany: she believed I was her answer, arriving early and right on time. When my dad came to the hospital room, she surprised him by changing my name to Typhany, a unique name for the baby she already saw as her miracle.

My parents were a quiet but united team, always trusting each other’s instincts. My name, born of my mother’s inspiration in that delivery room, has felt prophetic to me throughout my life.

Years later, we faced my dad’s health struggles. He had been misdiagnosed repeatedly with liver disease and other conditions until a gastroenterologist finally identified Crohn’s disease in 1992. By then, I had moved to Northern Virginia and was working as a travel agent. The internet wasn’t around to connect me to information or resources. When I got the news, I packed up and drove home to North Carolina, talking to myself the entire way, trying to make sense of what he was going through and asking myself what I could do to help him.

That long drive home filled me with a determination to advocate for him and a feeling that I could be a bridge between patients and doctors. Even then, I didn’t have a name for what I was doing, but I felt that this mission was as much a part of me as my own name.

In 1994, I married my husband, whom I’d met in Washington, D.C. We were blessed with two sons in the years that followed. As life went on, I was grateful for the health and blessings we enjoyed as a family. But my father’s condition worsened, and his flare-ups became more severe, leading to surgeries, resections, and eventually an ostomy. These were difficult times, but they fueled my drive to learn more and help him as best as I could.

Later, I joined Wake Forest University School of Medicine as a Standardized Patient Instructor. There, I learned—and taught—the art of active listening, which I believe is one of the most powerful skills in healthcare. Active listening goes beyond simply hearing words; it means understanding both the spoken and unspoken truths of the people in our presence. I learned to listen with empathy, to nod in silent support, to be comfortable with moments of silence, and to accept when I didn’t have an answer.

Through my passage as both a patient advocate and a standardized patient instructor, I’ve realized the profound impact of true understanding in healthcare. This passage, shaped by early lessons and experiences, has led me to live out my purpose—just as my mother foresaw, leaving room for my name and my story to unfold.

About the Author
Typhany is an advocate of health for patients, research participants, and peers at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and independently through her own firm, Epiphany Advocates of Health, DBA. Drawing from her upbringing in rural Iredell County, N.C., she works with rural populations as a health liaison and human resource and health literacy expert. Typhany is a featured writer and contributor of content on caregiving, health literacy, financial literacy, effective advocacy, rapport building, and Level 1 trauma and emergency response, which earned her the 2022 Award for Trust at Baptist. Typhany has been featured in Skirt Magazine and Winston-Salem journal and has made significant contributions to gender equity in the workplace.