PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I have a BS in Biomedical Engineering and an MBA in Health and Medical Services Administration.  I have been in health care for over 25 years.  I am currently employed by HTS, Inc. as a Transition Planner helping hospitals across the country open newly constructed facilities.

While I am proud of my academic achievements, I am a Social Entrepreneur at heart.  My grassroots efforts in health promotion stem from a deep sense of mission and purpose.  I am a Certified WELCOA Faculty member, a Professional Health Coach and I am currently pursuing a diploma in Nutrition Science.

DEMONSTRATED SUCCESS

I enrolled in my first Weight Loss Challenge (WLC) while employed at UCLA Medical Center.  I was shocked at how much I didn’t know about good nutrition.  What was even more alarming was that I didn’t know that I didn’t know.  And when I heard the statistics on obesity in my community, I was outraged!   Jim Rohn, my favorite business philosopher says that there are emotions that can simply turn your life around.  For me, that emotion was righteous anger.  Heeding the words of President Obama, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek”, I educated myself and began taking the message of good nutrition and healthy eating “to the streets”.  I am on a mission to help change the shape of America – one person at a time, one pound at a time, one community at a time. 

The Baldwin Hills Wellness Challenge is a twelve-week class that focuses on nutrition education and encouraging participants to eat healthy. The Challenge embraces the following WELCOA benchmarks:

1.  Creating a Supportive Environment.  The Challenge has become a great way to support community members who want to lose weight and move toward a healthier lifestyle.  In a fun and supportive environment, participants meet weekly to discuss healthy eating, share their victories and gain support for dealing with their challenges in choosing to eat healthy.  Participants receive on-going coaching and accountability for 12 weeks.

Enrollment fees are pooled for cash prizes and participants compete, based on percent of body weight lost.  In addition, all participants receive a Certificate of Completion.  Local businesses also donate prizes, like Day Spa passes, gym passes and free healthy smoothies.  Participants tend to want to take advantages of these bonuses as a group activity, evidence that the program also meets a social need.

2.  Collecting Data to Drive Health Efforts.  Features of the program include:

• Biometric Assessments 
• Health and Lifestyle Assessment
• Eating Habits Assessments and Meal Planning Recommendations
• Weekly Weigh-ins.  Monthly Measurements.

3.  Capturing Senior Leadership Support.

• Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department.   During my 3rd round of classes one of the participants happened to be a Regional Director for the Los Angeles Parks and Recreation department.  He experienced significant weight loss by implementing a lot of the things he learned in class.  He started the class extremely resistant, enrolling only at the insistence of his wife.  He finished the class a champion for the program.   Through his support, I was offered FREE classroom space for as long as he was over the park.  He also helped promote the program to the other parks under his jurisdiction and to his church. 
• Metropolitan Water District.  Another participant served on her employer’s Wellness Committee.  She proposed my program to the committee and together we were able to gain Senior Leadership support for my classes.  The Metropolitan Water District became my first corporate “client”.

LEADERSHIP

• Fueled by mission and purpose, I started as a grassroots advocate for nutrition education and continued to enhance my skills, qualifications and credentials to open more doors, allowing me greater access to broader audiences.  My commitment to leadership in health promotion is evidenced by pursuing Faculty status with WELCOA, Professional Health Coach training, and a Diploma in Nutrition Science.
• I co-founded Go To Health, a (brick and mortar) community-based nutrition club that brings together families, neighbors and friends in support of a common purpose; good nutrition and healthy lifestyles.  Go To Health was a pilot program based in an affluent neighborhood in Santa Monica, CA.  I hope to bring this concept to the inner city.
• I started the Baldwin Hills Wellness Challenge, a precursor to a community-based nutrition club.
• I was the Founding Director of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of Public Speaker’s Association.  The organization’s motto is “Change the World from the Front of the Room”.

INNOVATION

• Go To Health nutrition club was a very innovative concept in health promotion; the social atmosphere of a Starbucks but serving meal replacement shakes.  Our motto was “good nutrition on the go”.   I co-founded the club with several business partners.  The mission of the club was to bring together families and friends in support of a common purpose; good nutrition and healthy lifestyles.  Community members could avail themselves of free wellness profiles (biometric indicators, health assessments, meal planning assistance) and free fitness boot camps.  Fee-for-service offerings included personal wellness coaching and meal replacement shakes.
• I am in the process of putting my classes online so that I can have a broader reach and impact in the community.  The primary audience for the online classes is people in the early stages of change.  The primary goal is awareness, while strategically introducing them to the value and benefits of relationship-based coaching.  This operational plan will help me scale and monetize my efforts.

COMPELLING VISION

I believe that conversations about health promotion will evolve beyond “the scale” to a dialogue of well-being, wholeness and mindfulness.  We are multi-dimensional beings, yet for the most part, our approach to health promotion has been one dimensional – the body.  I feel it is important that we start addressing all parts of a person – mind, body and spirit. 

In my own business I have partnered with the Global Authenticity Movement to help my clients do just that, move towards self-actualization. Nutrition education coupled with the tools of authenticity will help people discover for themselves that they have control over their lives and that they have choice.

I believe this shift in perspective is the greatest opportunity the health promotion industry will see in the next 5 years.  I believe it is fundamental to bringing about systemic change not only to the health and health system of our country, but also to what we eat and how we manufacture our food.