Out of the White Coat: Nikki Newman, PA-C

When Beaufort Memorial launched its inaugural edition of the Bemmy Awards last year, it was to recognize those employees who truly go above and beyond. It was a chance to shine a spotlight on the hardworking folks who help carry out the organization’s mission, vision and values through their selflessness and relentless work ethic.

Nikki Newman, PA-C, exemplifies all of those qualities, and received this year's Bemmy Award for Provider of the Year.

“Nikki is one of the most humble, selfless, hardworking and dedicated providers I have ever had the pleasure of working with,” says Beaufort Memorial Practice Operations Administrator Angie Barber, who oversees several of the hospital’s practices and nominated Nikki for the award. “We are incredibly lucky to have her on our team!”

Farm Life to Family Life

It was a long road — literally and figuratively — that led to Nikki accepting the award from Beaufort Memorial President and CEO Russell Baxley earlier this year at a dinner celebration hosted by the hospital.

It starts in Albany, Wisconsin, on a farm that her family has owned and worked for two generations.

“I was just a farm kid from the Midwest,” says Nikki. “I was raised to marry a farmer, have kids and stay home.”

But leaving the farm for college opened up an entirely new world for her. It was one that would take her through what she calls “many trials and errors,” as she explored her options.

Nikki worked as both a vet assistant and a dental assistant before eventually completing her bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Akron. In her final year of college, she was introduced to her husband, Paul, by her brother, who was dating Paul’s sister at the time.

It turned out to be a successful match for both siblings.

“We got married three months apart,” she says.

Read More: Dr. Rhonda Wallace’s Long and Winding Road to Medicine

Managing a Pandemic and Becoming Parents

After getting married, Nikki decided to enter physician assistant school at Nova Southeastern University's regional campus in Fort Myers, Florida. It was there, just minutes from the crystal-clear beaches, that she discovered her love of the ocean.

“I always wanted to live close to the water,” she says. “There’s something about it that soothes my soul.”

In search of the perfect place to settle down, she and Paul discovered the South Carolina Lowcountry in 2014 and decided to make it their home. After working at another urgent care facility in the area, Newman joined the Beaufort Memorial Express Care team in 2021 right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It turned out to be a time that tested Nikki's resolve and demanded every ounce of effort she and her co-workers could muster. COVID-19 was a trial, to be sure, but one that demonstrated her commitment to medicine.

“We asked the urgent care providers to help in the emergency room during that time,” Baxley said in his Bemmy Awards speech. “And you know who stepped up immediately? It was Nikki. And not only did she do that, she did it with the most positive attitude.”

Simply making it through that gauntlet was challenge enough, but for Nikki, it was also a year in which everything changed for her, as she and Paul also adopted their then-8-year-old son, Luke.

“For our 20th wedding anniversary, we became parents,” she says. “Best gift ever!”

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Culinary Therapy

Like many moms with kids at home during the pandemic, Nikki took up baking.

“Luke’s a big cookie fan, and I was taking a baking class online with Christina Tosi of Milk Bar," Nikki says. "There was a class where you had to invent your own, and since he loves having fun with flavors, we made a lemon lime cookie. We’ve taught our son to appreciate heavy metal music, so we called it a ‘Lemmy Lime’ (in honor of Motorhead’s lead singer).”

Naturally, with a son named Luke and an origin story that involves leaving a farm, Nikki is also a giant Star Wars fan. Ask her nicely and she’ll share the recipe for her “Ki-Lime-Mundi” cookies, named for Jedi master and hero of the Clone Wars Ki-Adi-Mundi.

Bonding with her son over cookies during the pandemic also helped Nikki evaluate her priorities and inspired her to make a professional move that will offer both a new opportunity — and more time with the family. In August, she joins Beaufort Memorial Lowcountry Medical Group Primary Care in Beaufort, giving up the evenings and weekends that an urgent care practice requires in order to work a more traditional 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule.

“I’ve missed out on baking days and school trips because I’ve been so busy with work, but now I can see my son before he falls asleep,” she says. “I only get three more years before he’s a teenager.”

At Lowcountry Medical Group, Nikki hopes to continue to build her reputation as a top-notch provider as she makes the move to primary care.

“I’m really looking forward to the new challenge,” she says. “And particularly the opportunity to get to know my patients and follow them through their health care journey.”

And while she’s made a lot of friends and fans among her colleagues and patients during her time at Beaufort Memorial — and now been honored as its top provider — Nikki admits she could probably do without the spotlight.

“I like to fly below the radar,” she says with a laugh. “But it’s amazing that co-workers have thought this highly of me. It’s an honor.”

Read More: Tara Kay Inspires Patients to Live Healthier Lives

Nikki and Luke’s Ki-Lime-Mundi Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

• 225 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 250 grams granulated sugar
• 150 grams light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 grams key lime extract
• 140 grams all-purpose flour
• 120 grams Biscoff cookies (ground to flour consistency)
• 3 grams baking powder
• 1 gram baking soda
• 5 grams kosher salt
• 3 grams crystalized lime
• 115 grams mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 60 grams white chocolate chips
• 50 grams chopped macadamia nuts

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, add the egg and key lime extract, and beat for 7-8 minutes until very light and fluffy.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, Biscoff flour, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt and crystalized lime. Mix just until the dough comes together, no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Incorporate chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and chopped nuts on low speed, mixing no more than 30-45 seconds (or by hand).
5. Using a 2 3/4-ounce ice cream scoop (or 1/3-cup measure), scoop one portion of your dough onto a parchment paper-lined sheet pan and bake a tester cookie. Bake for 12 minutes.
6. Bake the rest of the batch after chilling for one hour, scooped onto sheet pans and partially flattened.

Nikki Newman and other Beaufort Memorial primary care providers are now accepting new patients. Find a provider today.