June 13, 2018
Dear Partners, Stakeholders, and Friends of the Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance:
We are recently back from our statewide conference, “New Horizons in Community Health” attended by 200 of our colleagues from across Minnesota. The day-long conference brought us together for learning and networking, enabled us to recognize CHW leaders, and come together to envision the next stage of our work together.
I write to share organizational updates with you following our announcement in March of Joan Cleary’s retirement. We continue to move through a series of transitions as we position ourselves for the next exciting chapter for the Alliance. Moving through a leadership transition brings with it an opportunity for the organization to step back and assess where it has been and where it wishes to go. There have already been some early learnings and discoveries for us, most notably that it takes a team to manage the programmatic work as well as the organizational and structural work.
First, on behalf of the Board, I wish to thank Anne Ganey, MPH who initially stepped into the role of Executive Director. Anne is a vital member of our team and we greatly value all that she brings to carrying out our mission. Anne is moving into the role of subject matter expert and consultant. In addition, Joan Cleary remains with the Alliance as a senior advisor and continues to assist with specific projects. As noted in our March announcement, LaTanya Black, a CHW Certificate holder with experience as a CHW, CHW supervisor, and small business owner, will continue to serve in an outreach and advocacy role. We are grateful to Anne, Joan, and LaTanya for their vast wealth of expertise and deep knowledge.
Further, we have hired an interim management firm, Strategic Consulting & Coaching (www.strategic- cc.com), to provide executive leadership and support and strengthening our bandwidth to work on critical programmatic issues. Renae Oswald Anderson is serving as our interim executive director and is supported by Strategic Consulting & Coaching’s team of highly experienced professionals.
As we move through this time of transition, we have identified three primary areas of focus for the Alliance:
- Education and training for CHWs and those organizations that employ CHWs
- Advancing the field
- Continuing policy support in the areas of health access and equity, workforce diversity, and the Triple Aim through federal, state, local, and institutional policy change
On behalf of our Board, thank you for all you do in support of the MN Community Health Worker Alliance. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Cathy Weik, Chair
Board of Directors
Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance
cweik@stratishealth.org
952-853-8519