Where Are They Now? Amy Cross Duffey: Nursing Award Recipient Encourages Students to Give Back

by Cynthia Walker Watts-Barrineau

AmyCross had never heard of Samford University as a student in Gadsden, Alabama. She attended a preview day her junior year of high school and said, “This is it!” Knowing her father’s fi reman’s salary could not send her to Samford, Amy earned good grades to qualify for scholarships. Her senior year she received a Samford Auxiliary (now Legacy League) scholarship and did not require student loans. From high school salutatorian in 1996 to graduating cum laude with her B.S.N. from Samford in 2000, her life had changed.

Amy believes Samford teaches the whole person. She spent two weeks of her junior year in the British Isles where she and a friend took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland. En route back to the Daniel House, Samford’s five-story home in London, they encountered several weather and travel challenges. Amy says that was a turning point to becoming an adult. “I knew then that I could do this!”

Two years after graduating, Amy was introduced to her future husband. They had been at Samford at the same time without meeting. Two years later Sam Duffey proposed to her on Valentine’s

Day under the Sherman Oak. Her ring was in a new Bible with her future name on it.

Amy and Sam support Samford and the Legacy League and encourage others to give back to Samford. She currently serves on the Scholarship Celebration Committee and is also an adviser for her sorority, Chi Omega. The Duffeys’ 16-year-old daughter, Livy, is already looking forward to being a Samford Bulldog and participating in Step Sing.

For over 20 years Amy has worked at Brookwood Hospital, where she does pre-admissions testing. Her dedication resulted in her receiving the Ida V. Moffett Courage to Care Award in 2018. Amy quotes Ida V. Moffett’s book, “It takes courage to care, to open the heart and act with sympathy and compassion.” 