Valerie W. OBGYN
- I heard about choices directly from Nate. I was telling him about some of the changes with my career and he told me to free up the weekend to be able to participate
- Nate’s reputation spoke for itself, so I arranged childcare and went to the next scheduled session ( a few weeks later)
- It was great being around positive energy and positive people who had the goal of personal growth. It was also helpful for me because I was at a cross road in my career and life, and needed to get a few things together quickly on a professional and personal level. My prior boss was leaving, and I was appointed to his position leading a fractured division for a University with no external funding, a training program in disarray, etc….. we can discuss this via phone later if you so desire, and I was starting to wonder if I was ready to accept the responsibility for this role. In fact the magnitude of the task at hand were almost enough for me to cower at the chance to take over and put things on the right path. Through the experience, I realized that I was ready to assume this role, break the glass ceiling that held many women (or people of color) back from this role, and came back ready to make the transition to leadership.
4/5/6. If that weren’t enough, a few weeks after the class I had to undergo a second surgery for a rare medical condition. So imagine being appointed to take over a leadership position scheduled to accept the batton 1 day after being discharged home from the hospital from major surgery (many in family don’t know this) and raising a child…. But I gained the clarity on how to make this possible and start up on top, even though I was in bed when the actual transition of power occurred. The responsibilities for the various aspects of the division were delegated out to people who I knew and trusted would do things according to the vision I had for the division. The process for starting another sub-division was established before I took medical leave. And a letter which could have been used as a political campaign rally was put together and sent to my secretary, who had strict orders not to share it with anyone, and send out as a blast e-mail at 9:07 the morning of the transition, giving those who didn’t know I was on medical leave the impression I was the new person in charge, and for those who knew I was in bed, the realization that I was a force to be reckoned with (in a positive way). Two days later, when a meeting with the Dean for the University was held regarding the fate of the training program, I made certain I showed up early to have the most comfortable seat in a position of strategic power at the table. When the Dean wanted to know “should we still have a training program” nobody else could answer, yet after Choices, my response surprised even him…..”if we aren’t having a program, you could have warned me so I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed”. While recovering, I looked over the points of the division which were lost and the points which were positive. Then came the plan – one by one each negative point was to be addressed either by me or by the team. The bottom line is….
- In 1 ½ years there were more publications with the fellows in training than the prior years
- The clinical scope of the division has expanded and we are financially in the black despite the economic changes
- There are offices in the area which are now requesting our services yet haven’t started to go there because we need the staff to handle the load properly
- Previously no external funding – now $2.4M in external grant funding
- Putting together my bid for the promotion so that can get the full time directorship. This would make me a “little known Black history fact” as there are no other African American women as division directors for this subspecialty who actively train fellows in the entire country!!
- Collaboration with the other portions of the medical school and the school of public health, so that when the fellowship training program is established, they can also get an MPH while training
- Double digit personal publications, including one which I presented in Sydney Australia at an international conference
- The fellows now have all didactic educational conferences established throughout the end of the fiscal year – never had this before, through efforts of our division and others who take their education seriously
- Just had my annual review by someone who made the subspecialty…. He commended me on pulling the division together with no resources, rallied the morale together and even offered to see some of the additional patients
I already had the financial responsibility pieces in order beforehand – see why in the next paragraph. So I guess you can say that I took the premise of being “unstoppable” to a new level.
I was previously “an underemployed physician” working a job I really didn’t like and stayed in it because of the convenience of my husband as his career was taking off. Well things changed, he accepted the corporate buy-out and he was starting to establish his own real estate investing. With NO warning, he suddenly passed on, leaving me to raise our then almost 7 year old daughter. I had a 1 hour + commute to a job I really didn’t enjoy anymore and meddlesome family members who I have since had to discontinue relations with so I could maintain my own sanity. So instead of not changing anything drastically the year after his loss, I went completely against the grain and changed everything. I didn’t have a signed contract yet when I sold the house in Delaware and moved to Southern Florida, lived meagerly off of savings (I had always lived by the 80/10/10 rule so I had sufficient cash) and waited….. Nobody could tell that I had no income, and actually the credit rating improved during this episode, as the meddlesome folks mentioned above had no access to me.
So yes, Nate and the Choices program helped a single mother, widowed, African American female physician who was dealing with her own medical and family “issues” completely shatter the glass ceiling with confidence and grace (and a lot of help from God)
And lastly, since I do medical manuscripts and not popular writing, I’ve found a ghost writer to put my story for publication as a story of positivity and hope…
And since then, I did meet a rather nice gentleman who so far can handle being in my presence so who knows…….
My only question is when is he offering choices 2 – as I jokingly told him a few nights ago, I must have arrived at the top because nobody ever takes shots at the birds at the middle of the flock, only those who have gotten to the top of the tree….. I haven’t lost my sense of humor
