By Allison O’Connor, TRUST President
June means a glorious return to summer and the joy it can bring. More time up north at the lake soaking up the sun and reading a great book. No more early morning school drop-offs for the kids. Loads of laughter with family and friends playing games in the backyard. Summer means the weather is warmer, the skies are bluer and life feels a little calmer.
June also marks the middle point of the year, which means I’m halfway through my term as TRUST President. How can that be?! Time does indeed fly when you’re having fun, so I thought now would be a great time to revisit the TRUST goals we outlined in January.
Our 2022 goals for the Women’s Health Leadership TRUST build on our goals from last year so we can take them to the next level. How are we doing so far? Let’s take a look.
- We are empowering the Associate Board. The Associate Board is off to an excellent start! Formed in September 2021, this team of women is already making significant impacts on our volunteer committees. And they’re creating our second Health and Well-being Retreat (Nov. 3-4), which is shaping up to be a spectacular event to reconnect with mindfulness, movement and resilience.
- We are executing our inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) goals. We’ve already begun to include more storytelling programs featuring diverse voices. We’ve also recognized more of the special days and months that celebrate women and culture. We remain focused on recognizing the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion in all TRUST activities.
- We are accelerating and leveraging our outstanding breadth of programming. Our goal was to continue expanding our programming efforts, and events are already hitting the calendar through the end of the year. We’ve listened to requests for more virtual networking events! Every month has at least two networking events for members and one event devoted to networking among new members.
I’m so pleased with our progress thus far for 2022. I started the year eager to lead and enthusiastic about learning from all of you. Those feelings are even stronger today! I may be halfway through my term; however, there is no halfway when inspiring and serving women leaders in health care throughout every step of their journeys. I’m all in on the TRUST and creating new possibilities for all women – in health care, well-being and beyond. I hope you are too!
Allison O’Connor serves as the 2022 TRUST President and is Vice President of Strategy Execution at Lifespark. Allison has also held roles as Board Chair with the American College of Healthcare Executives Minnesota Chapter and Minnesota Rural Health Association, Vice-Chair with Cedar Riverside People’s Center and is a current Board member with American Red Cross North Central Blood Services North Region.