ABOUT ME

Dr. Janice Cotrone hails from the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she grew up in the shadow of the nation’s
capital. Aspiring to become a nurse, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and began her
profession in a small hospital tucked in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. Her career then took her to
Arlington and Fairfax Hospitals where she spent several years in Cardiac Intensive Care. She loved the level of
patient care in the fast-paced, high-tech environment.
Dr. Cotrone visited Haiti twice as a teenager, and the experiences of those trips left a deep impression on her.
She returned to Haiti in 1981 and for 6 months directed a mission clinic in a coastal town. She learned the
language, but she also developed a deep love for the Haitian people.
Returning in 1984, she served the people of Haiti at a mission hospital on an island off the coast of mainland
Haiti. They became her family as she endeared herself to them. She wore many hats including Hospital
Administrator, Director of Nursing, Director of Surgery, Director of Pediatrics, and mission
bookkeeper/accountant. She brought many, many babies into the world and stopped counting at 300, never
losing a mother or a baby. There were many times there was no physician, and Dr. Cotrone had to rely on her
competence and experience to perform many procedures and surgeries. Although far beyond her scope of
practice, she never lost a patient and credits God for guiding her hands, as well as occasional visiting surgeons
who taught her many procedures and techniques.
In 1996 Dr. Cotrone married the love of her life, Rev. Mitchell Cotrone. He had served the Church for 22 years
as a missionary in Colombia, South America. The Cotrones were called to Haiti where they spent 4 years
together. Soon after their arrival they adopted a sibling group of 3 children from a destitute family and raised
them as their own. A 7 year-old girl, a 3-year old boy, and a 6 week old baby boy completed their family.
In 2001 the Cotrones returned to the U.S. and pastored a church in Florida. During those years, they added a
Hispanic and a Haitian congregation to the English-speaking congregation. They successfully and competently
navigated the challenges of 3 congregations of people representing 21 different countries.
In 2008 Rev. Cotrone retired from full-time ministry and the family decided to settle in the beautiful Ozark
Mountains of Missouri. They enjoyed raising bottle calves and dairy goats. It was in 2012 Dr. Cotrone felt
called to return to Haiti. The hospital was struggling with a lack of qualified nurses. By that time she held a
Master’s Degree in Community Health Nursing. She enrolled in Missouri State University and completed a
post-Master’s in Nursing Education followed by her doctoral degree with a focus on education and
administration. From scratch, Dr. Cotrone built the Wesleyan University of Haiti School of Nursing. She
successfully conquered the challenges of the Haitian government to bring the University to full accreditation.
Students earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and qualify to sit for the extremely difficult government
RN exam. Dr. Cotrone instills the values, principles, and characteristics of a nurse of excellence into every
student and those threads run through the curriculum of every class. Additionally, she developed a student
scholarship program to help offset the financial load students and their families are simply not able to meet.
Today, the Wesleyan University of Haiti School of Nursing is Number One in the entire country based on the
pass rate of graduates who take the RN exam. Dr. Cotrone has not only built a program of excellence, she has
spent countless hours teaching her faculty how to be competent educators as well. They are proud of her and of
her accomplishments and hold her in highest regard. She has worked 32 years in and for Haiti. The Haitian
people do not look at her as a foreigner. They see her as one of them.
In April, 2022 the Cotrone family suffered their greatest loss with the passing of their beloved husband and
father. Dr. Cotrone lovingly cared for her husband in their home until a massive heart attack took him home to
be with the Lord he had so faithfully served for so long.
The family is very close knit. Over the past 15 years they have become part of the fabric of the community of
Mansfield. Dr. Cotrone continues to direct the School of Nursing, although due to the extreme violence in Haiti

she must work virtually. She has done well raising her own family and looks forward to working with yours,
helping your families across the great state to achieve their dreams and aspirations. Dr. Cotrone understands
children. She worked with them for years and successfully home-schooled her own until their senior years of
high school. She knows how to administer, how to develop workable plans to address just about any problem,
how to balance budgets, how to build quality from scratch, how to effectively work with a foreign government,
and how to put people first. No task is too great and no challenge too daunting. She will proudly and
gratefully serve you as your Governor just as she has so effectively served Haiti. Her common sense and deep
level of hard work and commitment to you will put Missouri on an irreversible path of success for generations.
Dr. Janice Cotrone, the People’s Governor.