Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you Should Know. Hi. I'm John Dinkle,
founder and CEO of Dingle Business Development and former president
and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This is iHeartRadio's
CEOs you Should Know and I'm here today with Tracy Kodec,
CEO of Healthcare Access Maryland. Welcome Tracy, and thanks for
being here.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thanks for the invitation, John, Yeah, yeah, look forward to
our conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I thought we'd just get started by just getting to
know you a little bit in the organization. So for
those who are familiar, could you tell us about Healthcare
Access Maryland or some people referred to it as HECAM. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah. Healthcare Access Maryland or as you said, HECAM is
a nonprofit. We've been around almost twenty eight years, and
our mission is to help individuals enroll in health insurance
in the state of Maryland, whether it's Medicaid or on
the Maryland Health Connection website for on the health exchange.
(01:00):
And then we also recognize that you need some people
need assistance in navigating the healthcare system, and so we
also work with special populations to remove social drivers that
really impact people's ability to be healthy, like transportation, mental health,
food access. So we work with over forty thousand people
(01:21):
a year.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Wow, Wow, that's crazy. And yeah, go a little bit
more in depth about your programming because I know obviously
you're you know, one of the main things you do
is connect Marylanders with the Maryland healthcare system. But yeah,
tell us a little bit more because you have a
lot of wrap around services and programming that I think
our audience will be interested in we do.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And of course, you know, I try to put it
into you know, sort of two buckets of thinking the
health insuran side. So sometimes we just help you walk
through what you're eligible for on the On the health
insurance side, if you're eligible for free coverage on Medicaid,
we have navigators and bilingual navigators to help you understand
what you're eligible for. And then if you're eligible to
(02:06):
apply on the health exchange, what tax credits you might
be eligible for, what premiums you can afford, what you're
deductible would be, what level you would want on the
health Exchange old bronze silver. It's confusing, right, It's confusing
to anyone. So we really walk through that based on
(02:28):
everybody's individual and family needs. And then we work with
other special populations, Individuals coming out of the prison system
need help navigating the health care system, and we really
want people in Maryland to be healthy and remove those barriers.
We work with a lot of pregnant women and postpartum
helping them navigate pregnancy. We want positive birth outcomes. We
(02:51):
do a lot around safe sleep, educating family members about
the importance of safe sleep with children and newborns. And
we just of you cribs to Baltimore City moms.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's really cool. Thank you. I appreciate sharing that, Yeah,
and asking you a little bit more about kind of
the navigating the system. I know open enrollment just ended,
but what advice would you give our audience, you know,
in that regard and you know, is it too late
to you know, to enroll, and what circumstances you know,
(03:24):
are there where where people could still enroll.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Sure, we did have open enrollment and it was the
biggest year yet, so we're super excited. So really large,
large increase in people applying for health benefits, not only
just in Baltimore City but across the state. So you
can call us and we can help you walk through
what you might be eligible for. Individuals can call our
(03:49):
call center four one zero five hundred four seven one
zero and talk to a navigator to find out what
they're eligible for. Could be medicaid, especially if you've just
recently lost your job or lost parents coverage. You can
call us and we can help you walk through it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, great, that's great. Yeah, just talking about the business
a little bit. How or where do you get your
funding from? That's a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's a great question. So we are predominantly grant funded
through money through state and federal dollars, mostly Medicaid. You
have some behavioral health money, and we have Bureau of
Justice money from the federal government. So it really depends
on the program and services. But we are about an
eighteen million dollar nonprofit. But of course that all goes.
(04:38):
Most of that is to hire our great staff and
we have over two hundred and twenty staff members.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Gotcha, And how can the business community support h can
I knowing that a lot of your funding does come
from grants and government funding, I'm sure you have opportunities
for the corporate community.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Absolutely. We always are looking for strategy partners and we
look at a lot of the business community to support
things that grants don't always cover. Those nuances that we
can't get covered by grants, those special projects, and we
have a special fund that we call Rosalie's Fund that's
(05:18):
named after one of our previous employees that passed away
in twenty twenty and that helps people prevent eviction and
so business communities can always donate on our website. We
look for sponsorship opportunities and just meeting new business businesses,
especially those that have a lot of hourly employees. We're
(05:38):
always interested in hearing from them.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and it's interesting when you talk
about that. I think about the you know, the question
is why, you know, why is it important for the
business community to care about what you guys do? You know,
what's what's to hate to say, what's in it for them?
But but why is it important that they support or
you know, hcam Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, it may not be their individual employee that
needs health insurance or help navigating the healthcare system, but
it could be it could be a family member that
isn't covered under their work they may have they may
be an hourly employee and not be eligible. We see
a lot of hotels restaurants that need our support to
(06:25):
educate the community and their employees and their families about
health insurance and how to navigate the healthcare system and
really addressing some of those social needs. And so if
you really think about why the business community should care
about HCAM, it's because, you know, kind of that six
degrees of separation, there is going to be somebody that
(06:47):
they will know, whether it's an employee or a colleague,
that may need assistance from HCAM at some point. And
so it's it would be great also to have business
community help us spread the word about.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
HECAM, Yeah, and help the employees are productive employees and
happy employees, right, happy.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And I think we need to you know, in the
world of COVID of coming out of the pandemic, we
do need to recognize that we need to be aware of,
you know, the healthcare system and how employees are getting
connected to services and the importance of self care.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's great, thank you. Yeah, speaking of like
happy and healthy, could you talk us about the annual
five K for the health of the event. It just
seems like such a great opportunity for you know, the
business community to get involved with you in a fun
activity and you know, employee engagement and you know, and
learning more about what you did. Tell us a little
(07:44):
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, one of my favorite activities at HKm is our
five k. We've been doing a good four years now
and it's really exciting. We're trying to make it a
huge family event to come out April twenty sixth. It's
our five k for the help of it, so really
encouraging it as a family event. It's a five k obviously,
(08:06):
the three point one miles around the Inner Harbor, and
we have lots of vendors, we have music, we have cheerleaders.
So the business community can be a sponsor. They can
create a team and really make it a work activity, right.
They can bring out all their leadership and executives and
family members to do it together as a leadership opportunity
(08:29):
and team building. So that's also a great way to
celebrate h camp at the same time that you're building
building your team. It's just a great day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I remember, I guess it started
kind of uh you know, covid is time, and I
remember it was it was virtual, uh for for one
of these. Now it's obviously all in person, and you know,
it's turned into a really big event. Like you said,
with vendors and music and all kinds of cool. Sup.
(09:00):
Are you still bringing back the virtual part too?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, we never got rid of the virtual part.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Okay, it's really fun.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
We have so many friends of hcam that are around
the country. We have team members that moved to Hawaii
and Colorado and partners and sponsors in different parts of
the country. So we keep it virtual. So when people say, oh,
I won't be in town that weekend, great, you can
sign up as a virtual walker. We'll get you a
(09:27):
T shirt and wherever you are. I think John, one
year you you work, you walked from West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Maybe it was the Virginia Yeah, that's Virginia. Okay, Yeah,
that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It is and we'll always have the virtual option. So
it's a really great way, and I'm committed to trying
to get all fifty states with a virtual walker.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That would be that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It'd be fun.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that would be really fun. What other events does
ahecam host for the community? Kind of that's kind of
like the big one. Are there others that that you
would point out?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, we try sometimes we try to do smaller networking
events for the community. Those are special events that we
have throughout the year. We also there's always opportunities to
do education about your business. So if there's something that
you want to bring to the table the HCAM and
(10:23):
you see a connection about healthier living and a more
equitable healthcare system, we're always available to do an info
session to our team members. And then we always we
always you and I do those roundtables, Yeah, that I
love doing. Those are virtual, but it's about eight to
ten people and we try to bring the business community
(10:44):
together to learn about each other. You don't have to
drive anywhere in this nine degree weather.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, those are a lot of fun. I appreciate the
appreciate this. Well, we'll switching directions a little bit. Tell
us a little bit about yourself and how you got
to this point in your career.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Great question. So I have been with HKAM July will
be twenty five years. It's really seem to me and
I have not aged one bit in the past twenty
five years. So I started out actually as a perinatal
family planning liaison in two thousand and Really my focus
(11:24):
was to outreach pregnant and postpartum women in Baltimore City
on Medicaid and I absolutely adored that role. It really
set the foundation for me to understand the work at
HCAM and so over the years I've progressed in my
leadership role and became CEO in twenty sixteen when my
predecessor moved on to a new opportunity. So, you know,
(11:49):
going through COVID as a CEO has definitely been a
challenge and one that I never had expected to so
really focus on. But I'm a single mom by choice.
I have an eleven and a half year old daughter
who is also learning about the healthcare space by no
(12:10):
choice of her own by living with me, and can
pretty much tell you our mission.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But verbatim, I love it and part Hkam, you did
the talk about your experience there, because I think that's
kind of kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah. So I studied a community family studies at University
of Delaware and decided at first I thought I wanted
to be a social worker and was just having this
conversation with someone the other day about setting up myself
and I joined the Peace Corps and delayed going to
(12:46):
graduate school and had the opportunity to really see public
health in action as a Peace Corps volunteer in the
Eastern Caribbean totally changed the trajectory of my entire career.
I went to grad school about my master's in public
health and ended up back in Maryland where I'm from Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, that's super cool. That must have been an amazing experience.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It was an amazing experience. I was lucky because I
was living in an eighty degree weather all year round,
so I can't really complain about that.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Just for that, it'll be worth it all I got.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But I met some wonderful people and really learned a
lot about public health and the way to impact and
make change in the community. It really set the stage
for me.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, that's neat. That's neat. Well, thanks for sharing that.
So I like talking about leadership on the show, and
you are a very experience in that regard, and like
you know, I see you on panels and speaking about
it and all kinds of things. So how how would
you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Wow? People always ask me that, and I really have
a hard time darrowing it down. I do feel like
I am an approachable leader. We have over as I
said two hundred and twenty staff, and I love to
learn everybody's name. I love to learn about them, what
brings them to HCAM. So I feel I'm approachable. I
feel I'm a fair leader, but I also feel like
(14:16):
it's important to mentor our leaders. I started at the
organization as an outreach worker, so I recognize the importance
of mentorship and promoting from within. So that's a big
piece of I don't know if that you would call
that a leadership style, but important piece of what I
bring to the table at HCAM. So that's a big
(14:37):
piece of me. I also feel like self care is important.
I think that we have a team of parents of
individuals that are, you know, raising young kids, the Sandwich generation.
They're taking care of elderly family members, and we have
to recognize that our team needs a break, and so
(15:00):
self care is really important. We encourage people to use
their PTO. We give them mental health days for the
organization where we just shut down for two days a
year for no other reason but to recognize and support
our team members.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So we close.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Everybody gets off for their birthday, so lots of other
fun things we do. Health and wellness. We encourage prevention,
so it's really important. It's hard to educate the community
about healthier living and we're not doing it in house
if we have to really make sure we're talking the talk, right,
(15:38):
I guess is how they say it right?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right? Well, a lot of really good points there. One
that if ticut stands out to me is the approachability. Yeah,
because I think it's interesting and having experienced this before
and the leadership roles myself, like as the CEO, you're
kind of looked at as this this person and that
(16:00):
you you know, hard to talk to or you run
somebody that they're kind of fearful of you in a
way they can they control my job? Like how do
you how do you make yourself approachable? Because I think
you know a lot of CEOs have a hard time
with that, like they right, and so how do you?
And I've seen you in action because you are very approachable?
How do you? How do you how do you make
(16:22):
yourself approachable to employees? I mean you've got what two
hundred some.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Employees at him, one hundred and twenty and.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Twenty Yeah, yeah, talk about that for a second.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Sure, a pre pandemic, I was very visible within the office, right,
So I would walk around in the morning say good
morning to people, go into the break room, sit down
while people are having lunch, and really engage staff, walk
around and just you know, have conversation about non work
things and getting to know people, uh and what was
(16:54):
important to them. It's been a lot harder, uh in
the middle of COVID. Obviously all of that went virtual,
and that was really hard. And so what I have
been doing is joining all of our new staff orientations.
So getting to know new staff members day one when
they start. That's really important to me. If I miss it,
(17:15):
you know, if I'm on vacation or I have another meeting,
then I will reach out to them via email and
introduce myself. And I'm really low key, like it's not
suits and high heels for me. It's just right laid
back and let them know about me and I'm approachable
and that they can, you know, knock on my virtual
(17:36):
door anytime. That's important, and I try to go to
their staff meetings as much as possible and engage them
as much as possible. We still have offices on one
North Charles Street and we have staff there that are
seeing clients, and so I try to make myself seen
(17:57):
in that space. But we're in we're still in a
hybrid environment, so it's hard.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think, you know, I
think a lot of leaders understand that, but they don't
practice it or and or maybe they used to do
but they don't do it as much anymore. But as
you know, it is so critical to get to know
your people and to take that time to walk around
and say, Hi, how was your weekend? You know their
(18:24):
birthdays if you can, you know, like just those little
personal things just makes you that much of a better
leader and people and someone that people want to work for,
right And you know, so, I mean I think you're
found that living embodiment of that. To me, you seem
to have that kind of downpad and that's that's a
very important part of your culture over there. So that's
(18:45):
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm still learning. I think there's new ways to engage
team members. I try to take team members and new
leaders at the lunch and try to just have a
conversation with them about their goals. But it is challenging
when you have two hundred and twenty team members spread
across the entire state.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
It's really yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's pretty difficult. I
could imagine I had a much smaller team. You mentioned
the pandemic a little bit. I know it's been obviously
a few years. It's kind of it's with us now obviously,
and I don't think that will ever change. But during
that time when it was you know, really hit and
(19:25):
things were closed down, what did you what did you
learn about managing communication like leadership during that time?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Wow, I learned a lot. People want information and you
don't always have information, and I always felt it was
important to even communicate that, right, So communicating that you
don't have a lot of information, but we are here
(19:54):
to answer your questions. And I remember when the vaccines
became a available, we had lots of team members reaching
out and so we were communicating about the vaccines and
how we would make them available to team members in
the community, and our role in vaccine education and distribution
during the pandemic. But it was a lot around communication
(20:19):
and making sure that you're sending out those emails timely,
even if you didn't really have that much to say, right,
even if you didn't have tons of information, that you're
aware of it, that you're tracking it, that you'll turn
around and get it back to them as quickly as possible.
So that's really important to me. Timely responses to requests
(20:40):
for information is always really also important. So I learned
that during the pandemic as well. We'll never go back
to five days a week in the office sitting there
on the phone, like, we just won't. And that's okay,
And I think we have an opportunity to learn from that,
and we shouldn't ever go back to how we were.
(21:00):
I think we can move forward with what we've learned
from having a hybrid environment, being in the office part
of the time and then being in the community the
other part.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, that's great, that's great advice. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah,
So what excites you about the future of health care
access Maryland.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Well, we have a new project that we're partnering on
with JOHNS Hopkins School of Nursing, and it's called Neighborhood Nursing.
We're really excited about it, and it's really going back
to kind of my roots of community health and putting
nurses and community health workers in the community, regardless of
(21:44):
health insurance payer and provider. So it's really embedding in
the community. It really goes back to my Peace Corps days,
and I love it. I'm super excited about it. We've
already hired one nurse and a community health worker and
are embedding them into East Baltimore, and we'll continue to
expand into other areas. So looking for more partnerships and
(22:05):
more funding in that. We're awesome, very excited about neighborhood nursing.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Awesome. Well, yeah, congratulations, that's that's very exciting. On the
other hand, And what keeps up at night.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Funding money making payroll. Yeah, So obviously I said it before,
We're keeping one eye on the federal government and what's
happening over the next four years. But I can't let
it keep me up too much because we have very
little control over it. We'll watch it and we'll we'll
(22:44):
pivot as necessary. Certainly concerned about the Maryland Maryland deficit,
the budget in Maryland, and so we'll be watching that
at night. And then staffing. We have over fifteen positions
a lot in the social work space looking for licensed
(23:05):
clinical social workers. So, yes, we're nonprofit. We're probably not
paying that really high competitive salary and sign on bonuses
that the hospital spaces are providing, but probably staffing is
another one that keeps me up at night.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's too many things to keep you up
at night, Tracy. Well, to wrap things up, is there
anything else you'd like our listeners to know about you
and healthcare access Maryland.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, we'd love for you to visit our website Hcamaryland
dot org. Maryland is spilled out the whole word. Visit
us on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Instagram, follow us, share information.
We always are providing lots of information about our partner communities,
(23:57):
where we're going to be in the community, and how
you can access us. If you'd love to learn more
as a business owner, we can certainly have those conversations
as well, and we'd love for you to participate in
their five K. It will be summer, well spring summer
in April, it'll be warm. Imagine what fifty degrees will feel.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like at that point I can imagine. Yeah, Well, thank
you so much for all that. I really appreciate time,
always enjoy having a conversation with you, and then really
appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Thanks for being a longtime partner. John.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs. You should know
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you Should Know. Hi. I'm John Dinkle,
founder and CEO of Dingle Business Development and former president
and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal. This is iHeartRadio's
CEOs you Should Know and I'm here today with Tracy Kodec,
CEO of Healthcare Access Maryland. Welcome Tracy, and thanks for
being here.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thanks for the invitation, John, Yeah, yeah, look forward to
our conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I thought we'd just get started by just getting to
know you a little bit in the organization. So for
those who are familiar, could you tell us about Healthcare
Access Maryland or some people referred to it as HECAM. Thanks.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah. Healthcare Access Maryland or as you said, HECAM is
a nonprofit. We've been around almost twenty eight years, and
our mission is to help individuals enroll in health insurance
in the state of Maryland, whether it's Medicaid or on
the Maryland Health Connection website for on the health exchange.
(01:00):
And then we also recognize that you need some people
need assistance in navigating the healthcare system, and so we
also work with special populations to remove social drivers that
really impact people's ability to be healthy, like transportation, mental health,
food access. So we work with over forty thousand people
(01:21):
a year.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Wow, Wow, that's crazy. And yeah, go a little bit
more in depth about your programming because I know obviously
you're you know, one of the main things you do
is connect Marylanders with the Maryland healthcare system. But yeah,
tell us a little bit more because you have a
lot of wrap around services and programming that I think
our audience will be interested in we do.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
And of course, you know, I try to put it
into you know, sort of two buckets of thinking the
health insuran side. So sometimes we just help you walk
through what you're eligible for on the On the health
insurance side, if you're eligible for free coverage on Medicaid,
we have navigators and bilingual navigators to help you understand
what you're eligible for. And then if you're eligible to
(02:06):
apply on the health exchange, what tax credits you might
be eligible for, what premiums you can afford, what you're
deductible would be, what level you would want on the
health Exchange old bronze silver. It's confusing, right, It's confusing
to anyone. So we really walk through that based on
(02:28):
everybody's individual and family needs. And then we work with
other special populations, Individuals coming out of the prison system
need help navigating the health care system, and we really
want people in Maryland to be healthy and remove those barriers.
We work with a lot of pregnant women and postpartum
helping them navigate pregnancy. We want positive birth outcomes. We
(02:51):
do a lot around safe sleep, educating family members about
the importance of safe sleep with children and newborns. And
we just of you cribs to Baltimore City moms.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's really cool. Thank you. I appreciate sharing that, Yeah,
and asking you a little bit more about kind of
the navigating the system. I know open enrollment just ended,
but what advice would you give our audience, you know,
in that regard and you know, is it too late
to you know, to enroll, and what circumstances you know,
(03:24):
are there where where people could still enroll.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Sure, we did have open enrollment and it was the
biggest year yet, so we're super excited. So really large,
large increase in people applying for health benefits, not only
just in Baltimore City but across the state. So you
can call us and we can help you walk through
what you might be eligible for. Individuals can call our
(03:49):
call center four one zero five hundred four seven one
zero and talk to a navigator to find out what
they're eligible for. Could be medicaid, especially if you've just
recently lost your job or lost parents coverage. You can
call us and we can help you walk through it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Okay, great, that's great. Yeah, just talking about the business
a little bit. How or where do you get your
funding from? That's a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
That's a great question. So we are predominantly grant funded
through money through state and federal dollars, mostly Medicaid. You
have some behavioral health money, and we have Bureau of
Justice money from the federal government. So it really depends
on the program and services. But we are about an
eighteen million dollar nonprofit. But of course that all goes.
(04:38):
Most of that is to hire our great staff and
we have over two hundred and twenty staff members.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Gotcha, And how can the business community support h can
I knowing that a lot of your funding does come
from grants and government funding, I'm sure you have opportunities
for the corporate community.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Absolutely. We always are looking for strategy partners and we
look at a lot of the business community to support
things that grants don't always cover. Those nuances that we
can't get covered by grants, those special projects, and we
have a special fund that we call Rosalie's Fund that's
(05:18):
named after one of our previous employees that passed away
in twenty twenty and that helps people prevent eviction and
so business communities can always donate on our website. We
look for sponsorship opportunities and just meeting new business businesses,
especially those that have a lot of hourly employees. We're
(05:38):
always interested in hearing from them.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, and it's interesting when you talk
about that. I think about the you know, the question
is why, you know, why is it important for the
business community to care about what you guys do? You know,
what's what's to hate to say, what's in it for them?
But but why is it important that they support or
you know, hcam Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
You know, it may not be their individual employee that
needs health insurance or help navigating the healthcare system, but
it could be it could be a family member that
isn't covered under their work they may have they may
be an hourly employee and not be eligible. We see
a lot of hotels restaurants that need our support to
(06:25):
educate the community and their employees and their families about
health insurance and how to navigate the healthcare system and
really addressing some of those social needs. And so if
you really think about why the business community should care
about HCAM, it's because, you know, kind of that six
degrees of separation, there is going to be somebody that
(06:47):
they will know, whether it's an employee or a colleague,
that may need assistance from HCAM at some point. And
so it's it would be great also to have business
community help us spread the word about.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
HECAM, Yeah, and help the employees are productive employees and
happy employees, right, happy.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And I think we need to you know, in the
world of COVID of coming out of the pandemic, we
do need to recognize that we need to be aware of,
you know, the healthcare system and how employees are getting
connected to services and the importance of self care.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Yeah, yeah, that's great, thank you. Yeah, speaking of like
happy and healthy, could you talk us about the annual
five K for the health of the event. It just
seems like such a great opportunity for you know, the
business community to get involved with you in a fun
activity and you know, employee engagement and you know, and
learning more about what you did. Tell us a little
(07:44):
bit about that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, one of my favorite activities at HKm is our
five k. We've been doing a good four years now
and it's really exciting. We're trying to make it a
huge family event to come out April twenty sixth. It's
our five k for the help of it, so really
encouraging it as a family event. It's a five k obviously,
(08:06):
the three point one miles around the Inner Harbor, and
we have lots of vendors, we have music, we have cheerleaders.
So the business community can be a sponsor. They can
create a team and really make it a work activity, right.
They can bring out all their leadership and executives and
family members to do it together as a leadership opportunity
(08:29):
and team building. So that's also a great way to
celebrate h camp at the same time that you're building
building your team. It's just a great day.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I remember, I guess it started
kind of uh you know, covid is time, and I
remember it was it was virtual, uh for for one
of these. Now it's obviously all in person, and you know,
it's turned into a really big event. Like you said,
with vendors and music and all kinds of cool. Sup.
(09:00):
Are you still bringing back the virtual part too?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah, we never got rid of the virtual part.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Okay, it's really fun.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
We have so many friends of hcam that are around
the country. We have team members that moved to Hawaii
and Colorado and partners and sponsors in different parts of
the country. So we keep it virtual. So when people say, oh,
I won't be in town that weekend, great, you can
sign up as a virtual walker. We'll get you a
(09:27):
T shirt and wherever you are. I think John, one
year you you work, you walked from West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
Maybe it was the Virginia Yeah, that's Virginia. Okay, Yeah,
that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
It is and we'll always have the virtual option. So
it's a really great way, and I'm committed to trying
to get all fifty states with a virtual walker.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That would be that would be fantastic.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
It'd be fun.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, that would be really fun. What other events does
ahecam host for the community? Kind of that's kind of
like the big one. Are there others that that you
would point out?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, we try sometimes we try to do smaller networking
events for the community. Those are special events that we
have throughout the year. We also there's always opportunities to
do education about your business. So if there's something that
you want to bring to the table the HCAM and
(10:23):
you see a connection about healthier living and a more
equitable healthcare system, we're always available to do an info
session to our team members. And then we always we
always you and I do those roundtables, Yeah, that I
love doing. Those are virtual, but it's about eight to
ten people and we try to bring the business community
(10:44):
together to learn about each other. You don't have to
drive anywhere in this nine degree weather.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, those are a lot of fun. I appreciate the
appreciate this. Well, we'll switching directions a little bit. Tell
us a little bit about yourself and how you got
to this point in your career.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Great question. So I have been with HKAM July will
be twenty five years. It's really seem to me and
I have not aged one bit in the past twenty
five years. So I started out actually as a perinatal
family planning liaison in two thousand and Really my focus
(11:24):
was to outreach pregnant and postpartum women in Baltimore City
on Medicaid and I absolutely adored that role. It really
set the foundation for me to understand the work at
HCAM and so over the years I've progressed in my
leadership role and became CEO in twenty sixteen when my
predecessor moved on to a new opportunity. So, you know,
(11:49):
going through COVID as a CEO has definitely been a
challenge and one that I never had expected to so
really focus on. But I'm a single mom by choice.
I have an eleven and a half year old daughter
who is also learning about the healthcare space by no
(12:10):
choice of her own by living with me, and can
pretty much tell you our mission.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But verbatim, I love it and part Hkam, you did
the talk about your experience there, because I think that's
kind of kind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Yeah. So I studied a community family studies at University
of Delaware and decided at first I thought I wanted
to be a social worker and was just having this
conversation with someone the other day about setting up myself
and I joined the Peace Corps and delayed going to
(12:46):
graduate school and had the opportunity to really see public
health in action as a Peace Corps volunteer in the
Eastern Caribbean totally changed the trajectory of my entire career.
I went to grad school about my master's in public
health and ended up back in Maryland where I'm from Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Yeah, that's super cool. That must have been an amazing experience.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
It was an amazing experience. I was lucky because I
was living in an eighty degree weather all year round,
so I can't really complain about that.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Just for that, it'll be worth it all I got.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
But I met some wonderful people and really learned a
lot about public health and the way to impact and
make change in the community. It really set the stage
for me.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, that's neat. That's neat. Well, thanks for sharing that.
So I like talking about leadership on the show, and
you are a very experience in that regard, and like
you know, I see you on panels and speaking about
it and all kinds of things. So how how would
you describe your leadership style?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Wow? People always ask me that, and I really have
a hard time darrowing it down. I do feel like
I am an approachable leader. We have over as I
said two hundred and twenty staff, and I love to
learn everybody's name. I love to learn about them, what
brings them to HCAM. So I feel I'm approachable. I
feel I'm a fair leader, but I also feel like
(14:16):
it's important to mentor our leaders. I started at the
organization as an outreach worker, so I recognize the importance
of mentorship and promoting from within. So that's a big
piece of I don't know if that you would call
that a leadership style, but important piece of what I
bring to the table at HCAM. So that's a big
(14:37):
piece of me. I also feel like self care is important.
I think that we have a team of parents of
individuals that are, you know, raising young kids, the Sandwich generation.
They're taking care of elderly family members, and we have
to recognize that our team needs a break, and so
(15:00):
self care is really important. We encourage people to use
their PTO. We give them mental health days for the
organization where we just shut down for two days a
year for no other reason but to recognize and support
our team members.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So we close.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Everybody gets off for their birthday, so lots of other
fun things we do. Health and wellness. We encourage prevention,
so it's really important. It's hard to educate the community
about healthier living and we're not doing it in house
if we have to really make sure we're talking the talk, right,
(15:38):
I guess is how they say it right?
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right? Well, a lot of really good points there. One
that if ticut stands out to me is the approachability. Yeah,
because I think it's interesting and having experienced this before
and the leadership roles myself, like as the CEO, you're
kind of looked at as this this person and that
(16:00):
you you know, hard to talk to or you run
somebody that they're kind of fearful of you in a
way they can they control my job? Like how do
you how do you make yourself approachable? Because I think
you know a lot of CEOs have a hard time
with that, like they right, and so how do you?
And I've seen you in action because you are very approachable?
How do you? How do you how do you make
(16:22):
yourself approachable to employees? I mean you've got what two
hundred some.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Employees at him, one hundred and twenty and.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Twenty Yeah, yeah, talk about that for a second.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Sure, a pre pandemic, I was very visible within the office, right,
So I would walk around in the morning say good
morning to people, go into the break room, sit down
while people are having lunch, and really engage staff, walk
around and just you know, have conversation about non work
things and getting to know people, uh and what was
(16:54):
important to them. It's been a lot harder, uh in
the middle of COVID. Obviously all of that went virtual,
and that was really hard. And so what I have
been doing is joining all of our new staff orientations.
So getting to know new staff members day one when
they start. That's really important to me. If I miss it,
(17:15):
you know, if I'm on vacation or I have another meeting,
then I will reach out to them via email and
introduce myself. And I'm really low key, like it's not
suits and high heels for me. It's just right laid
back and let them know about me and I'm approachable
and that they can, you know, knock on my virtual
(17:36):
door anytime. That's important, and I try to go to
their staff meetings as much as possible and engage them
as much as possible. We still have offices on one
North Charles Street and we have staff there that are
seeing clients, and so I try to make myself seen
(17:57):
in that space. But we're in we're still in a
hybrid environment, so it's hard.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Yeah, yeah, I like that. I think, you know, I
think a lot of leaders understand that, but they don't
practice it or and or maybe they used to do
but they don't do it as much anymore. But as
you know, it is so critical to get to know
your people and to take that time to walk around
and say, Hi, how was your weekend? You know their
(18:24):
birthdays if you can, you know, like just those little
personal things just makes you that much of a better
leader and people and someone that people want to work for,
right And you know, so, I mean I think you're
found that living embodiment of that. To me, you seem
to have that kind of downpad and that's that's a
very important part of your culture over there. So that's
(18:45):
pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I'm still learning. I think there's new ways to engage
team members. I try to take team members and new
leaders at the lunch and try to just have a
conversation with them about their goals. But it is challenging
when you have two hundred and twenty team members spread
across the entire state.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
It's really yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's pretty difficult. I
could imagine I had a much smaller team. You mentioned
the pandemic a little bit. I know it's been obviously
a few years. It's kind of it's with us now obviously,
and I don't think that will ever change. But during
that time when it was you know, really hit and
(19:25):
things were closed down, what did you what did you
learn about managing communication like leadership during that time?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Wow, I learned a lot. People want information and you
don't always have information, and I always felt it was
important to even communicate that, right, So communicating that you
don't have a lot of information, but we are here
(19:54):
to answer your questions. And I remember when the vaccines
became a available, we had lots of team members reaching
out and so we were communicating about the vaccines and
how we would make them available to team members in
the community, and our role in vaccine education and distribution
during the pandemic. But it was a lot around communication
(20:19):
and making sure that you're sending out those emails timely,
even if you didn't really have that much to say, right,
even if you didn't have tons of information, that you're
aware of it, that you're tracking it, that you'll turn
around and get it back to them as quickly as possible.
So that's really important to me. Timely responses to requests
(20:40):
for information is always really also important. So I learned
that during the pandemic as well. We'll never go back
to five days a week in the office sitting there
on the phone, like, we just won't. And that's okay,
And I think we have an opportunity to learn from that,
and we shouldn't ever go back to how we were.
(21:00):
I think we can move forward with what we've learned
from having a hybrid environment, being in the office part
of the time and then being in the community the
other part.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, that's great, that's great advice. I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah,
So what excites you about the future of health care
access Maryland.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Well, we have a new project that we're partnering on
with JOHNS Hopkins School of Nursing, and it's called Neighborhood Nursing.
We're really excited about it, and it's really going back
to kind of my roots of community health and putting
nurses and community health workers in the community, regardless of
(21:44):
health insurance payer and provider. So it's really embedding in
the community. It really goes back to my Peace Corps days,
and I love it. I'm super excited about it. We've
already hired one nurse and a community health worker and
are embedding them into East Baltimore, and we'll continue to
expand into other areas. So looking for more partnerships and
(22:05):
more funding in that. We're awesome, very excited about neighborhood nursing.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Awesome. Well, yeah, congratulations, that's that's very exciting. On the
other hand, And what keeps up at night.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Funding money making payroll. Yeah, So obviously I said it before,
We're keeping one eye on the federal government and what's
happening over the next four years. But I can't let
it keep me up too much because we have very
little control over it. We'll watch it and we'll we'll
(22:44):
pivot as necessary. Certainly concerned about the Maryland Maryland deficit,
the budget in Maryland, and so we'll be watching that
at night. And then staffing. We have over fifteen positions
a lot in the social work space looking for licensed
(23:05):
clinical social workers. So, yes, we're nonprofit. We're probably not
paying that really high competitive salary and sign on bonuses
that the hospital spaces are providing, but probably staffing is
another one that keeps me up at night.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, Yeah, that's too many things to keep you up
at night, Tracy. Well, to wrap things up, is there
anything else you'd like our listeners to know about you
and healthcare access Maryland.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, we'd love for you to visit our website Hcamaryland
dot org. Maryland is spilled out the whole word. Visit
us on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Instagram, follow us, share information.
We always are providing lots of information about our partner communities,
(23:57):
where we're going to be in the community, and how
you can access us. If you'd love to learn more
as a business owner, we can certainly have those conversations
as well, and we'd love for you to participate in
their five K. It will be summer, well spring summer
in April, it'll be warm. Imagine what fifty degrees will feel.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like at that point I can imagine. Yeah, Well, thank
you so much for all that. I really appreciate time,
always enjoy having a conversation with you, and then really
appreciate you coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Thanks for being a longtime partner. John.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs. You should know
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