David Salanitri, Senior Master Sgt and Chief of Public Affairs for the 932nd Airlift Wing

In this episode, David Salanitri, Senior Master Sgt and Chief of Public Affairs for the 932nd Airlift Wing, shares lessons from nearly 20 years in the Air Force, including insights on strategic communication, leadership, and how reservist healthcare professionals are making a difference both in their communities and in uniform.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Healthcare
Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by a
very special guest. We're joined by a leader
who is both a leader in health care,
but also more importantly,
a leader in the air force, United States
Air Force. We're joined today
by David
Selenitry.
David's gonna talk to us. He he's had

(00:21):
a communications role for a long time in
the air force, a brilliant person, a great
leader. David, can you take a moment and
introduce yourself and and tell us a little
bit about your experience and career in the
air force?
Absolutely, Scott. So so so happy to be
here. The Becker's podcast is you know, the
hospital review is something that I hold near
and dear to my heart. It's what's helping
me understand this understand this industry at a

(00:42):
both macro and micro level. So, so such
an honor and is here, to be here
to speak to you today. I've been in
the Air Force for just shy of twenty
years now. I came into the Air Force
about, six weeks after I graduated high school
in what I thought would be about four
years and, you know, enjoy some,
good health care, enjoy some, good educational benefits,
and see the world. What I thought would

(01:04):
be a four year tour has become,
nearly two decades now. So I got about
215
left until I do retire and
transition into what I hope is the health
care communications,
industry. But, you know, I I kind of
begin sentimental thinking about the last two decades.
It's it feels both like a lifetime, maybe
five lifetimes, but it also feels like yesterday

(01:25):
where I was in basic training. I've,
one really main thing has stuck out into
in my mind is that the Air Force
has consistently given me opportunities to lead well
beyond what my years probably should, necessitate. A
good example of this is while most of
my friends were spending their 20 birthday in,
you know, typical fashion,
I was spending my 20 birthday packing for

(01:46):
my first deployment to Baghdad, Iraq. I would
actually go on to lead, media operations form,
for the night shift on behalf of eight
countries operating out of Saddam's old movie theater.
So I don't know too many 21 year
olds who are given that kind of,
scope and responsibility. That continued throughout my career.
I got to,
be, working out in the Pentagon during that

(02:07):
sixteen day government shut shutdown in 02/2013,
which I know many of us remember. And
during that time, I was, really leading internal,
communications for our 183,000
civilian employees, less than 330,000
military members. So that really helped,
really,
show me how much I love employee comms

(02:28):
and how communications
could really
help solve problems. And then one of my
more recent, experiences was I got to, develop
the Space Force's internal comms and also owned
media team. And that was, it's it's always
fun when Netflix does a show
on, your your employer. That that that usually
means you're doing something right when it comes
to, creating a buzz. So that's where I've

(02:51):
been. Where I am now is I'm stationed
at Scott Air Force Base. You know, Scott,
good name. Right? Right outside of Saint Louis
where I'm leading the public affairs office for
the nine thirty second airlift wing. And what's
unique about this assignment and these airmen
is that while most of my entire, pretty
much my entire,
air force career has been active duty, working

(03:11):
for active duty of offices,
I now support air,
reservists. So what these reservists are is, you
know, nine to five, Monday through Friday, they
are working in the community. They wear, you
know, the same clothes that you're probably wearing
right now.
But then one week in a month and,
at the nation's call, they put on the
air force uniform,
and they, come in. And, we have

(03:33):
numerous doctors, health care practitioners,
medics,
nurses who while you know, I just met
with someone recently who is a family physician
at Barnes Jewish Jewish, here in town.
But on the weekend, he comes and he
is an air force commander, and he is
a flight surgeon. So it gives the that
gives these health care professionals the opportunity to,

(03:54):
you know, continue serving but in a slightly
different capacity. And in the air force, we
even teach them how to be air crew
members,
wear the flight suit. And, you know, a
lot of these members have gone on to
in their military capacity, you know, they were
the ones who opened up a hospital in
Puerto Rico post, hurricane Maria. So doing some
really impactful things. So that's where I've been,
and that's where I am now, Scott.

(04:15):
And take a moment. I wanna sort of
go through two quick questions.
First, a few of the key lessons you've
learned in your twenty years in the Air
Force about communications, like a few key lessons.
Second,
a few key things you see the Air
Force doing health care that are particularly noteworthy,
and you sort of mentioned it in in
Puerto Rico. But talk to us first maybe

(04:36):
about a few key lessons you've learned over
the last twenty years in in the Air
Force either about leadership or communications.
And then second, about a couple of things
that the Air Force is doing to take
care of its people in the health care
in the health from the health care perspective.
Absolutely. Two great questions. Two questions I would
love to talk about. So the first, what
what I've learned, about communications over the last

(04:58):
twenty years is, you know, I've I I
wonder if executives are similar to senior air
force commanders. I imagine they may be. And
a lot of our commanders, you know, they
they're all about,
mitigating risk and reducing risk. Right? So previous
generation and maybe a little bit of current
generation of commanders, they their first initial knee

(05:18):
jerk, knee jerk reaction when it comes to
maybe, you know, jumping on a podcast like
this or speaking with the media. Their first
reaction is to say no. They think in
order to mitigate and reduce risk, they should
not say anything. I spent a couple years
working for Air Force Special Operations Command. They
have this motto called the quiet professional.
However, I have made the case to commanders

(05:39):
in recent days,
that in order to actually mitigate risk,
you should actually take control of the narrative.
If if you leave the white space, someone's
going to fill it. So if you leave
room for a narrative to build,
someone's gonna love to take that narrative and
run with it. So, actually, in order to
reduce risk, you should say something. You should
take control of that narrative.

(06:00):
Too many times, we we do quite the
opposite.
So that kind of kind of really to
sum it up, if you leave white space,
someone is going to fill it.
Don't do that. Advise against that.
No. We love that. We love that because
that's it's the same thing in the world.
If you leave a vacuum, somebody feels that
vacuum. It's not necessarily good people, not necessarily
actors you want to to fill that vacuum.

(06:21):
And so I I I love that. I
think that's right on. So you're better off
projecting and not being reactive and having clarity.
Here's what we're trying to say or what
we're trying to do. I I love that.
Any any other lessons that that you've learned,
David, that are that are helpful?
Yeah. So, you know, from a communication standpoint
too, I'd say there there's a good phrase
I I learned.

(06:42):
We're
I know a lot of your podcasts are
anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. That's pretty
short. Right? Because you are,
communicating to professionals, and time is, is the
valuable commodity that we don't have enough of.
I'm currently reading this book, called Smart Brevity.
I should say I'm rereading this book called
Smart Brevity. And, really, it focuses on how
to be able to talk in a succinct

(07:02):
manner and be able to write in a
succinct manner. Really, if you are building a
communication product, and often the goal is for
it to have a tangible effect on your
strategy. You want someone to know something, to
feel something, to change a behavior. But if
they are closing the story, you know, two
seconds into opening it,
then your message is is not gonna be

(07:22):
heard or understood. It won't have an effect.
So writing in a way, you know, engaging
your audience in maybe ways that wasn't, you
know, very popular fifteen, twenty years ago, twenty
years ago before we had a smartphone,
and social media, really. You need to be
able to write and and communicate in a
succinct way so that your audience actually understands
the message. So,

(07:42):
really having to kind of walk senior leaders
through that when it comes to, like, internal
comms or even writing to different stakeholders.
Maybe maybe we'd instead of writing you the,
you know, a 70 page, you know, document
on where we are at the state of
our operation,
what might be a little bit more effective
is something that's maybe seven or 800 words
with a link to more information.
That might actually have a tangible effect. And,

(08:04):
I'm all about efficient and effective communications. I,
unfortunately, don't have the luxury of being inefficient
or ineffective. So so that that that would
be another key aspect, that I've learned over
the last twenty years in communications.
No. I I I love that. Try and
at least control the narrative. Work towards smart
brevity. I'm a huge fan of that.
And take us forward to the Air Force

(08:25):
and health care. What a couple of interesting
things you're watching in the Air Force and
health care. You mentioned some of the great
things the Air Force has done in the
in the face of hurricanes and other national
disasters national disasters. But but talk to us
about what what you're seeing. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
So I'll kinda focus on the on the
unit that I primarily support. Right?
You know, so the nine three second, one
of the things that I'm seeing here is,

(08:47):
you know, we have a big, presence when
it comes to aeromedical evacuation
where we actually, you know, are able to
go and get patients in some really unique
places and be able to get them to
a higher echelon of of care very quickly.
You know, speaking to the days that are,
you know, when we're full on in Iraq
and Afghanistan,
they would call this the golden hour. If

(09:08):
we can get someone off the battlefield into
a higher echelon of care within an hour,
then the survivability rate was close to ninety
eight percent. That's pretty darn effective.
Now kind of post, you know, being in
those operations full time, we are what what
do we do with this mission set? So
a big thing that our folks are doing
is they're teaming up with, for example, the

(09:30):
ninth thirty second. They've teamed up with, Mercy,
right here in, outside of Saint Louis. That's
part of, you know, I I believe they've,
you know, part of Barnes Jewish now. And
they have worked with our health care providers
and our health care, professionals in the air
force to make sure that they are consistently
getting training,
in in the right sit situation. So they're

(09:51):
actually going to these hospitals and being able
to,
get training,
that they used to see more,
in the battlefield, but they're not seeing it
as quite often,
luckily right now. But these are skills that
cannot atrophy.
You know, unfortunately, there might be a time
where we need those skills,
to be fully up and operational.

(10:11):
So these skills cannot atrophy. Our reserve airmen
here, you know, the reserve allows for them
to be able to have full on careers
where they don't have to move every three
or four years like I've had to do
with my family,
but they can stay here. They can stay,
part of they can,
have their practice fully up and running without
much,
you know, vulnerability with them having to move,

(10:34):
often. Now the reserve allows for them to
be able to do that job, you know,
be at the at the tee ball games,
you know, be at their church, not have
to leave every four or five years,
but then be able to serve at a
higher calling and be able to come into
the air force, you know, and be able
to do this one week a month. Sometimes
they will,
go on volunteer for orders, meaning, like, they

(10:55):
will actually we see this these wildfires going
on in this part of the nation. Can
you put me on military orders? I'd like
to be able to go there and help
but burn victims.
It's it's a lot it's giving these health
care professionals tremendous flexibility
in what they, in what they do. And
the last kind of push that I'll mention
is we have this thing called comprehensive airman
fitness. Now this,

(11:16):
CAST, you know, air force loves acronyms. We
call it CAST. And what it really focuses
on is it looks at the airman as
a weapon system,
meaning a a person, you know, for aircraft,
which we call weapon systems, for for an
aircraft, it has a maintenance plan. Just like
your car, you probably get an oil filter
lube every, what, three or four or 5,000
miles. It it might ask you might have

(11:37):
to get your tires rotated every x amount
of miles. Well, we look at airmen the
same way. We need to be able to
take care of them with good nutrition.
The three pillars pillars are,
physical fitness. So, you know, I just got
done working at the gym during during lunchtime,
right before I jumped on this call.
We work for, the other pillar is emotional
health. Right? So that also includes, like, social,

(11:59):
health and making sure that we're doing everything
we can with these airmen to give them,
you know, the tools to be able to
have strong social lives. And the last one
is spiritual health. Right? So whether that is
a a formal faith or whatever it may
be, we know we're better when we feel
connected to a higher purpose. So I've seen
a a great focus on the air force
focus
I've I've seen great effort on the air

(12:20):
force focusing on these three things. And as
a result, you know, our retention in the
air force is very high right now. I
it's I it's it's been in years, and
I think that's a big element for for
that.
That's amazing. And so if you were to
give yourself you thought you'd be in the
air force for two to four years. You've
been there for twenty years.
Give us a one to 10 grade on
your experience with the Air Force. And and

(12:41):
and, David, it better be a a 10,
but give us a one to 10 grade.
Yeah. For the, yeah, for the next two
hundred fifteen days, I'll see I'll I'll say
a 10. Actually, in February
from now. No. I'm just kidding.
No. It's been a it's been a great
it's been a great experience. You know? I
thought for sure I'd do four years and
get out, but the air force kept on,
investing in me. But then and but then

(13:02):
in turn, I got to pay back that
investment in ways that they needed.
You know, they sent me to Syracuse University
for, for a year to study visual communications.
That's investing in me, but then I got
to invest in them by going on to,
hold hold several workshops where I got to
actually teach airmen these skills, and I got
to perform at, you know, the the, you

(13:22):
know, the pinnacle of the Pentagon,
to kind of really return that investment. So,
it's been a great experience. I've loved it.
They've really focused really taught me how to
lead airmen,
and not just airmen, but, you know, I
have numerous,
government,
federal employees who work for me. You know,
I have I've everywhere from baby boomers to
to Gen z, and they've taught me, the

(13:43):
Air Force has invested in their in my
formal leadership education, being able to, you know,
really lead multi, multigenerational
multigenerational
workforce. And that that you can't really stumble
on to that. You know? They've been very
deliberate in how they've, taught me, and it's
been, something I'm really excited to be able
to, hopefully, be able to, employ when I,
you know, do step out into the, the

(14:05):
health care system comms world.
Really an amazing career.
David, any quick
piece of advice that you would give to
an emerging leader?
Any advice you'd give to an emerging leader?
Yes. So I would say don't I used
to say I wanna be the leader I
would wanna have. That mindset failed me. I

(14:26):
need to be the leader that my team
needs. And that and, you know, in reality
is that the leader that the airman next
to me would need is a lot different
than the airman next to him might need
and the leader that the female next to
her may need. You know? So, like, stop
being the leader that you want to have.
Be the leader that your team needs you
to be, and that will require for you
to approach matters differently,
always fairly. But each airman is a individual

(14:49):
person wonderfully created that needs certain unique aspects
out of their leader. So, I would say,
you know,
leaders are readers. You need to understand, read
the room, read good material that's gonna help
you be able to meet each member where
they are, so that they can have a
great experience. In the turn, they're gonna, make
your organization way more effective.

(15:11):
Again, David Selenitry, what a pleasure to visit
with you. You have an amazing, amazing career
in the air force. And now we'll be
leaving the air force in in two hundred
and fifty days or so. Is that just
a tremendous career? I'll be working in the
health care communications field. Just amazing. David, thank
you so much for joining us today on
the Beckers Health Care podcast. What a pleasure
to visit with you.
Likewise, Scott. Thanks for doing this. Thank you

(15:32):
to, you and the team for helping increase
my, competency in health care communications. I listen
to this every day at the gym while
my friends are listening to music. I'm listening
to, you know, four or five of your
podcasts, and, thanks thanks for giving me the
the understanding of what's going on in the
world.
God bless you every day, and thank you
for your service. Thank you.