Healthcare Diversity Summits Underway

The Texas Diversity Healthcare Council (TXDHC) once again launched a series of Healthcare Diversity Summits across their markets. This year’s theme is "Diversity, Inclusion and Cultural Competence in Healthcare". These summits promote dialogue, awareness, and support to organizational culture and diversity development strategies within the healthcare communities. Although is it a Healthcare Summit, attendance was made up of not only health related entities, but also of various corporate, academia, non-profit and community participants. The format includes a breakfast and networking opportunity followed by presentations and a panel discussion. The audience has an opportunity to also ask questions throughout the sessions. Texas Diversity Council Chairman of the Board, Dr. Harry Gibbs (Chief Diversity Officer-UT MD Anderson Cancer Center) joined Houston and Austin to present, "How to Speak Multicultural". The audience was fully engaged as he gave some insight on organizational advancement and different elements of cross cultural communication. Dr. Gibbs will be traveling to the remaining markets to share his presentation (Greater Dallas & Greater San Antonio). Following is a recap on the two that have taken place so far. Gulf Coast Healthcare Summit on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at Methodist Hospital in Houston, TX:
Following Dr. Gibbs' speech, Willie French, Director of Talent Acquisition for the Texas Methodist Hospital System, focused on "Hiring Red, White, and You." In his speech, Mr. French shared a presentation on the current initiatives that the Methodist Hospital System has implemented to promote hiring veterans into the medical center of Houston. After receiving insight from the presenters on the summit topics, the attendees gained a greater understanding of building an organizational culture and a workforce that is inclusive and diverse from an array of panelists (Paula McHam - Moderator, Director, Client & Community Affairs, CIGNA; Randy Kirk, Director of Talent Acquisition, The Methodist Hospital System; Kristie Johnson, Clinic Administrator, Kelsey Seybold; Paul Simmons, Registered Nurse, Legacy Community Health Services; Bruce Luu, Business Development Manager, Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital). The summit ended with closing remarks from Jason DeGroot, the VP of the Texas Diversity Council. Central Texas Healthcare Summit on Thursday, August 23, 2012 at Seton Healthcare Family in Austin, TX:
Following Dr. Gibbs’ presentation, the audience was introduced to “Seton Healthcare Family's Journey toward Inclusion, Equity and Access". It was made clear that Seton fully utilizes their likenesses and differences to continuously improve services, strengthen programs, increase community participation, and be a catalyst to address health disparities among all groups. Included was an overview of Project SEARCH at Seton Medical Center Austin (SMCA), which is a nine month professional internship for adults with intellectual disabilities. Delivering these presentations from Seton was Geronimo Rodriguez, Vice President, Diversity & Community Outreach and Mel Greene, Director of Diversity & Inclusion. The Texas Healthcare Council would like to thank all of the sponsors, speakers, and attendees for helping make the Gulf Coast Healthcare Summit a success. The second half of the summit was dedicated to the distinguished panelists who covered "Inclusion and Cultural Competence at the Heart of Healthcare Excellence". Those who participated were Patricia A. Young Brown, President/CEO, Central Health; Brion Oaks, Vice President of Health Equity, American Heart Association - Southwest Affiliate; Paul Scott, Chief Executive Officer, AIDS Services of Austin; and Dr. Bonnie Clipper, AVP for Professional Nursing Practice and Development for St. David’s HealthCare. Serving as the moderator was Fenorris Pearson, Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer, Seton Healthcare Family.


The information shared in these sessions exposes participants to best practices from leading organizations that have developed proven models of success in regards to increasing cultural awareness in the field of healthcare management. The TXDHC looks forward to providing the upcoming sessions: Greater Dallas Healthcare Diversity Summit, September 21, 2012, presented by Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor Health Care System 3410 Worth Street Tom Hunt Auditorium, 10th Floor Dallas, TX 75246 Greater San Antonio Healthcare Diversity Summit, November 7, 2012, presented by UT Health Science Center & School of Nursing The University of Texas Health and Science Center at San Antonio 7703 Floyd Curl Drive San Antonio, TX 78229 The TXDHC is an initiative of the Texas Diversity Council. For more information or to become involved, please contact Angeles Valenciano, Vice President Business Development and TXDHC Lead, at angeles.valenciano@texasdiversitycouncil.org.

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