February: Leadership Visalia
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Leadership Visalia Launches the New Year with Comprehensive Healthcare Day
By Dan Griswold, Visalia Fire Department
To kick off 2025, the Leadership Visalia Class of 2024-25 spent the January day session learning different aspects of personal and community healthcare. This month’s leadership session was led by Selesta Sullivan and Laura Hernandez Rangel and both did an excellent job planning an agenda comprised of expert panel discussions, activities, and tours on various health care topics..
The Healthcare Day Session began with a mental health activity on meditation. The session was led by Linh Le of The Path to Inner Peace. During this session, Linh led discussion and education on the health benefits of meditation and led a meditation session for the group to learn and experience the benefits of meditation. Linh did an excellent job leading the session and everyone came away with new knowledge on how to better take care of their mental health going into the new year.
Following meditation, Laura Hernandez Rangel led a group discussion on “Know Your Numbers,” an American Heart Association Initiative that focuses on five, key health related numbers that can give a person an accurate picture of their health. The group learned that by following and managing you A1C, BMI and waist circumference, blood pressure, cholesterol, and kidney function, people can prevent significant health issues and costs.
Following the “Know Your Numbers” session, the team engaged in a discussion on quality of healthcare and access to services within Visalia. This session included a question-and-answer panel discussion with local health care experts. Panelists included Karen M. Elliott, the Director of Tulare County Public Health, Marc Mertz, the Chief Strategy Officer of Kaweah Health, and Whitney Neely the Vice President of Quality and Risk Management with Family HealthCare Network. During the discussion, the group had an opportunity to discuss a variety of topics affecting the different health care services in the community. Some topics discussed were diversity, equity and inclusion in healthcare services, technology and healthcare, equitable access to healthcare strategies, employee well-being programs, and recruitment strategies.
Following the expert panel discussion, the Leadership Visalia team had the opportunity to tour two locations at Kaweah Health. First, the group toured the Kaweah Health Emergency Department. The tour provided valuable understanding of the challenges faced by the emergency department and its role in the community. Following the tour of the emergency department, the team toured Kaweah Health’s simulation lab. The simulation lab allows personnel to train and refine their critical life-saving skills in a state-of-the-art, high-tech environment.
The Healthcare day session ended with a presentation and discussion led by Selesta and Laura on developing good health, fitness, and nutrition habits. This session offered practical advice and first steps for developing and maintaining healthy habits.
January’s Healthcare day session kicked off the new year with insightful, motivating information and insight for the Leadership Visalia team. The Visalia Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Visalia Program continues to provide current and emerging leaders with critical skills and information to serve and lead within the community.
