Two Panel Education Event:

Panel 1:  Diversity & Inclusion

The communities for which healthcare organizations operate are rapidly diversifying. Not only do they provide care for a diverse community of patients and families, but their workforce is also growing more diverse. This diversity is exhibited in a number of ways, including nationality, race, religion, language, age, sexual orientation and physical ability. The business implications and imperatives healthcare organizations face concerning diversity and inclusion are immense. Diverse communities will demand different care needs, improved quality, new or modified operational processes and services, strategic planning for a diverse patient demographic and continuum of care. It is incumbent on healthcare organizations and their leaders to both understand and embrace the needs of diverse populations. Their ability to respond to the needs and preferences of a broader customer base will be critical to their financial and operational survival.

Moderator:
Guwan Jones
Chief Diversity Officer
Baylor Scott & White Health

Guwan Jones is the Chief Diversity Officer of Baylor Scott & White Health. She is an ongoing advocate for underserved and vulnerable patient populations. Through her work with three healthcare systems and other not-for-profits, she has worked on issues such as funding to increase access to health insurance for children, focusing community resources on providing health care access for low socio-economic populations, organizing resources for HIV/AIDS patients, designing meaningful interventions for minority diabetes patients, and designing analytic dashboards to measure human capital investment and patient outcomes. Guwan has helped advance Baylor’s work around access and health care improvement and produced the Baylor Health Care System Health Equity Performance Analysis. She participated in the nationally recognized Disparities Leadership Program designed to tackle racial and ethnic disparities in health care lead by the Disparities Solutions Center at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA,. She served on the CitySquare board, an organization supporting basic needs for lowsocioeconomic Dallas families and homeless communities. She was featured as a case study in the 2014 book “Be the one to start change at work and in life: Make Waves” because of her reputation of marrying the business case for working in parallel on the diverse needs of both talent and patients’. Guwan holds a Master of Public Health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth and a Bachelor of Science in Health Science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Guwan is also a Certified Health Education Specialist and received the 2008 U.S. Surgeon General’s Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future Champion Award.

Panelists:

Ildemaro Gonzalez
VP & Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer
Parkland Health & Hospital System

In his current role Mr. Gonzalez seeks to develop and oversee programs that enhance both the employee and patient experiences. Specifically, his team is focused on enabling culturally competent and equitable care.  Connect with Patients, Partner with our Community, and Engage our People are the three strategic imperatives that guide his work at Parkland.

Mr. Gonzalez previously worked at Newell Rubbermaid where he was the Global Director of Inclusion & Philanthropy, as well as Senior Manager, Learning & Development, for the company’s Latin American operations. At Newell he focused on “Global Readiness” ensuring the organization understood the nuances of diverse global markets and transformed that knowledge into high performing teams and category leading products worldwide.

Prior to his work with Newell Rubbermaid, Gonzalez worked for The American Cancer Society in Atlanta. There he served as Managing Director of the Talent Solution Center and Managing Director of Diversity Strategy, amongst other positions. In addition to focusing on an inclusive work environment, Mr. Gonzalez and his team worked on increasing the effectiveness of the Society’s programs within diverse communities.

Mr. Gonzalez holds a Master of Business Administration in Management from Georgia State University in Atlanta, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Venezuela.

Kimel Hodges
Assistant Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion and Equal Opportunity
UT Southwestern Medical Center

Kimel Hodges is the Assistant Vice President of Diversity & Inclusion and Equal Opportunity at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She joined UT Southwestern in September 2012 and oversees several divisions including Diversity & Inclusion, Equal Opportunity, and Supplier Diversity/HUB.

Kimel leads the development of the organization’s Diversity and Inclusion strategies by providing and coordinating leadership for diversity issues institution-wide. She oversees the Affirmative Action Planning as well as other internal processes for promoting and ensuring compliance with laws, regulations, organizational policies and contracts investigations of discrimination, harassment or retaliation. Kimel also provides strategic direction in the development of initiatives for the Supplier Diversity/Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) program, and enterprise-wide Minority, Women, Service Disabled Veterans Business Enterprise (MWSDVBE).

Before joining UT Southwestern, Kimel served as Director of Diversity & Inclusion at CHRISTUS Health. Prior to that, she had over 10 years with the Kellogg Company in various leadership positions including Diversity Business Partner, EEO/AA Manager, and Human Resources Manager in both the corporate and manufacturing.

Kimel is a member of several executive committees at UT Southwestern, and represents the Institution at various community events. Kimel is involved with the Youth Motivational Task Force (YMTF) at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, where she serves on the planning committee. She also is a member of the American Heart Association’s Compensation, Benefits and Human Resources Advisory Committee and a Board member of the Alfred William (A.W.) Harris Faculty-Alumni Center Corporation.

Kimel earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University, and master’s degree in Human Resources Management from Central Michigan University. Kimel also holds Certified Diversity Executive (CDE) credentials from the Society for Diversity and a Senior Certified Affirmative Action Professional (Sr.CAAP) from the American Association for Access, Equity and Diversity (AAAED).

Paula Turicchi, FACHE
Administrator, Women and Infant’s Specialty Health (WISH)
Parkland Health & Hospital System

Paula Turicchi, FACHE is the Administrator of Women and Infant’s Specialty Health (WISH) at Parkland, oversees women and infants health services including one of the largest maternity services in the U.S. She is responsible for the business operations of labor and delivery, inpatient postpartum, newborn nursery services, neonatal intensive care unit, 12 women’s ambulatory clinics, OB/Gyn Sonography, Genetics, and an obstetrics and gynecology emergency care center. She is board certified in Healthcare Administration and holds a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration and Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.  She first joined Parkland as administrative resident in 1988.

Panel 2:  Fostering Inclusion of LGBT Patients and Employees

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) patients face many challenges in accessing knowledgeable, unbiased and welcoming healthcare in all practice settings. The potential and/or fear of receiving derogatory remarks, unequitable care, or being turned away from treatment often deters some of the LGBT community and their families from seeking healthcare services. Healthcare equality for all people is a guiding principle of the healthcare management profession. However, discrimination towards the LGBT community continues in the healthcare environment today. This panel discussion will focus on the need to strengthen the pursuance of equity of care and to foster inclusion of LGBT patients and employees.

Moderator:

Dresdene Flynn-White, FACHE
Managing Director
Acquired Leadership Solutions

Dresdene Flynn-White is no stranger to success as both a business owner and a strategic business partner in the corporate world.  First as an administrator in higher education, then on to a fifteen-year healthcare career with Kaiser Permanente. Leaving a lucrative career in corporate human resources and consulting, she started on her five-year entrepreneurial journey as an executive and business coach, advising and supporting small business owners.

Dresdene returned to corporate human resources as Vice President for Human Resources at JPS in 2010. She assumed the role of the network’s first Diversity Officer in January 2012. In this capacity she is responsible for the execution of the Hospital District’s Diversity strategies relating to the provision of culturally competent care for patients, the education and retention of a diverse workforce and an expansion of engagement with M/WBE and HUB VENDORS.

Having retired from the position of Chief Diversity Officer as of February, 2015, Dresdene has returned to healthcare consulting by establishing a boutique consulting practice focused on strategic leadership development/

Dresdene is a unique health care professional, having experienced both corporate operational and business ownership roles. She is a credentialed manager responsible for establishing, consolidating and realigning critical business areas (quality, utilization and risk management and performance reporting) to enable the initiation of new systems, definition of new business processes and responses to litigation and regulatory compliance issues.

Dresdene serves on several community boards including the Fort Worth Metropolitan YMCA, Health Babies, Healthy Moms, Healthy Communities (H3); is the current president of the North Texas Chapter of American College of Healthcare Executives, and Co-Chair of the Tarrant County Cancer Disparities Coalition.

Panelists:

Rafael McDonnell
Communications and Advocacy Manager
The Resource Center

Rafael McDonnell is the Communications and Advocacy Manager for Resource Center, the LGBT community center serving North Texas. At the Center, he works on external and internal communications as well as education, advocacy and policy issues involving the LGBTQA community. Since June 2010, he has successfully participated in or led community advocacy for new or expanded LGBT employment protections for nearly 50,000 public sector employees in North Texas, as well as partner benefits at Dallas County and Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

McDonnell has also worked on and advocated for anti-bullying and non-discrimination policies covering more than a quarter-million students at Dallas ISD, Dallas County Community Colleges and Uplift Education.  He was chosen to be the one of the grand marshals for the 2014 Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade, better known as the Dallas Pride Parade. In March 2015, he was named “Best LGBT Community Leader” by the readers of the Dallas Voice.

McDonnell has conducted presentations on non-discrimination and other LGBT issues at the Texas Transgender Non-Discrimination Summit, the Texas Gay-Straight Alliance, the Equality Texas’ State of the State Public Policy Conference, the Stonewall Democrats of Texas annual meeting, and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference among others.

McDonnell’s over 25-year career as a professional communicator includes working at radio and television stations in Dallas, Houston and Oklahoma City, where his work was honored by the Texas AP Broadcasters, the Dallas Press Club and the Texas Public Health Association. Prior to joining the Center in 2008, he was a member of the news office at the University of North Texas and participated in UNT’s Allies program. McDonnell is a former president of Lambda Pride Toastmasters and vice president of Dignity/Dallas, a former board member of the Trinity Valley School alumni association, and has been a volunteer for the Tanqueray AIDS Rides and the Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University and a master’s degree from the University of North Texas.

Scott Phillips
Senior Director of Patient Access Services
Texas Health Resources

Scott Phillips is currently Senior Director of Patient Access Services at Texas Health Resources. In his current role he has oversite of the Patient Access functions at the 14 wholly owned THR hospitals.  Scott has over 22 years of Patient Access experience with 12 of those years serving as Director of Patient Access Services at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas. Scott has served as President of NORTEX and is involved with NAHAM and HFMA.

Peter Triporo
Nurse Practitioner
Uptown Physician Group

Peter Triporo RN, ACNP-BC, attended the University of Texas at Arlington, where he received his Masters of Nursing with Honors (Sigma Theta Tau and Phi Kappa Phi). He is board certified through the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and licensed by the Texas Board of Nursing as an Adult Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. As a Nurse Practitioner, Peter excels in health promotion, counseling, prevention and disease management. He believes in building a strong, collaborative partnership with patients to improve their access and quality of care they receive.

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