Rhiannon Croci
Director and Newsletter Editor
Rhiannon Croci has spent most of her life here in the SF Bay Area. She is a collector of hobbies and while many of them get dropped soon after all the shininess wears off, growing orchids has remained a passion for nearly 20 years. Her appreciation for flowers and other natural beauty started in childhood as she followed her grandparents around their gardens helping with planting, pruning, and watering. Orchids first peaked her interest at one of the SFOS Pacific Orchid Expositions at Fort Mason back in the early 2000s. A couple of Cymbidium, a Phalaenopsis, and a Dendrobium came home with her and started the collection. In those early days, she usually loved many of her orchids to death, (thank goodness for the hardiness of Cymbidiums), and rarely thought about what might actually grow in her environment. However, the urge to continue trying to grow orchids persisted. Much of the orchids she grew were outside and often suffered a little neglect as they succumbed to the 'out of sight out of mind' phenomena. Growing orchids inside became the more successful strategy over time and by the time the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing, Rhiannon was overtaking the front room of her house with her orchid collection, along with a large amount of aroids. In order to make her collection thrive indoors, Rhiannon converted an Ikea cabinet into an indoor greenhouse, set-up 2 small miniature greenhouses, added lots of artificial lighting around the room, and thanks to an old house, maintains the humidity above 55% outside of the greenhouses and above 75% within them. Her favorite genera to grow are Bulbophyllum (and related cirrhopetalum etc.), Phragmipedium, Paphiopedilum, and Maxillaria. Today, due to space issues, Rhiannon is only adding miniature orchids to the collection. She currently grows 145 orchids inside and 20 outside.
In order to pay for her orchids, Rhiannon does have to work. She holds a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing from Cal State East Bay and is a board-certified Nurse Informaticist. After working at the bedside as a clinical nurse at UCSF Medical Center, Rhiannon decided to explore her tech nerd side and jumped into a role with the electronic health record. She works as a Clinical Informatics Specialist where she blends her clinical and technical knowledge to create and develop a variety of data/analytical assets including EHR data extracts and Tableau dashboards, and consults on the integration of technology in the clinical space to help solve problems facing her organization. Rhiannon was instrumental in providing data for the medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her colleague created a data mart and multiple dashboards for the organization that allowed UCSF to see the impact of COVID-19 in the hospital in real-time. Her work was written about in the SF Chronicle and she co-wrote an article in the Washington Post about defining hospitalizations 'with' or 'from' COVID-19.
She lives in South San Francisco with her husband, four dogs, and a cat. She is thrilled to be part of the SF Orchid Society and take on editing the monthly newsletter.
In order to pay for her orchids, Rhiannon does have to work. She holds a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing from Cal State East Bay and is a board-certified Nurse Informaticist. After working at the bedside as a clinical nurse at UCSF Medical Center, Rhiannon decided to explore her tech nerd side and jumped into a role with the electronic health record. She works as a Clinical Informatics Specialist where she blends her clinical and technical knowledge to create and develop a variety of data/analytical assets including EHR data extracts and Tableau dashboards, and consults on the integration of technology in the clinical space to help solve problems facing her organization. Rhiannon was instrumental in providing data for the medical center during the COVID-19 pandemic. She and her colleague created a data mart and multiple dashboards for the organization that allowed UCSF to see the impact of COVID-19 in the hospital in real-time. Her work was written about in the SF Chronicle and she co-wrote an article in the Washington Post about defining hospitalizations 'with' or 'from' COVID-19.
She lives in South San Francisco with her husband, four dogs, and a cat. She is thrilled to be part of the SF Orchid Society and take on editing the monthly newsletter.