Wyoming
Meet (some of) the faces behind Banner Wyoming Medical Center
As a regional trauma and referral center, Banner Wyoming Medical Center is the largest hospital in Wyoming and provides comprehensive heart, stroke and trauma care and more to the people of Wyoming. The hospital’s team is made up of people with a genuine desire to take care of their friends, family and neighbors and to keep that care in the state.
These are just some of the faces behind Banner Wyoming Medical Center.
Meet Tom,
Tom Sherwin was a pipe welder for more than 15 years before deciding he needed a career change. After more than a dozen knee surgeries and a lot of time spent in hospitals over the years, his wife encouraged him to think about a career in health care.
At first, he thought he might be a paramedic but ultimately decided to pursue a respiratory therapy degree at Casper College. He’s now been a respiratory therapist for more than 11 years and began managing Banner Health’s Sleep Lab in Casper in 2019.
“It’s important to me to give every patient the best care,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side, and I know how much a kind word means.”
Tom grew up on a 30,000-acre ranch west of Casper and enjoys everything outdoors, including bow hunting, fishing, hiking, rock hounding, and prospecting. If he’s not outside, he enjoys spending time with his wife, four daughters and grandson.
Meet Sam,
All of the males in Sam Liday’s family are firefighters, so it seemed clear that
might be his career path as well. His mother is a pharmacist and he thought
about following in her footsteps, but she talked him out of it. Firefighting
didn’t feel like his life calling, so he decided to pursue nursing school.
“I knew I wanted to do something that would have an impact,” said Sam.
Originally from Idaho and educated in Montana, Sam is accustomed to life in
the West and moved to Casper almost two years ago with his girlfriend who is
from here. She is a firefighter. Sam is a nurse on Banner’s Wyoming Medical
Center’s Neuro Unit.
When Sam isn’t at work, he enjoys everything outdoors, including hunting,
skiing and especially fly fishing along the North Platte River.
Meet Kindal,
A dog-adoring, sun-worshipping, golf-loving LPN.
Kindal Kott moved to Wyoming from a small town in Texas when she was 13. After high school, she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do for a career, but knew she wanted to stay in Casper.
“I really like Wyoming,” she said.
Kindal decided to get her CNA license and has worked on Banner Wyoming
Medical Center’s Medical Unit for about three years. She was inspired by
her co-workers and one of her cousins who is a NICU nurse to pursue
nursing school and has been holding down her job as an LPN while
attending nursing school at Casper College.
“I just felt like it was the right thing to do,” she said.
In Kindal’s limited free time, she enjoys walking her two blue heelers
and playing golf.
Meet Jonica,
A dog-loving, walleye-fishing, amateur-bowling paramedic.
A scary experience as a teenager is what led Jonica Fields to health care.
A tumor was discovered in her sinus cavity when she was just 14, which forced
the Worland-native to spend a lot of time at Children’s Hospital in Denver.
Fortunately, the tumor was benign and able to be removed, and she’s been
able to lead a normal life.
Jonica decided to pursue her paramedic degree but after graduating about
10 years ago, there were no job openings in the ambulance department. She
pivoted and decided to take a job in Banner Wyoming Medical Center’s lab as
a phlebotomist and waited about 6 months for a paramedic job to open.
Today, she’s in nursing school.
“I really love the ambulance, but I don’t feel like this is the kind of job I can do
until I’m 65,” she said.
In her free time, Jonica loves just about anything outside, especially if there
is no cell service.
Meet Hong,
A humidity-loving, family-adoring, joyful-cooking laundry aide.
Hong Hatterman moved to Wyoming from Vietnam after she met and
married her Wyoming-born husband. His mother, Hong’s mother-in-law, is
also Vietnamese, which helped ease the big transition.
“The hardest thing was the weather,” she said. Even after 26 years, she says
she still misses the humidity in Vietnam.
She doesn’t have the opportunity to return to Vietnam very often, but the
family gets together to cook traditional food that feels like home, and she’s
able to instill some of her cultural traditions in her two children.
Hong came to work at the hospital and worked in housekeeping for two
years before transitioning to laundry, where she has spent more than 17
years. She said she has thought about going back to school to become a
nurse, but she loves people and the teamwork in the laundry department.
“When you’re happy with what you’re doing, time flies,” she said.
For more information on the faces behind Banner Wyoming Medical Center, and all of the services they provide, visit the Banner Wyoming Medical Center website or follow them on Facebook.
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CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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