Sacagawea and Pathfinder
Award Winners Named
WIS. REPORT SPECIAL (Jan. 3, 2006) - Susan E. Ela, Senior Clinical Vice President, Care Management Quality, Access and Integration of Aurora Health Care, and Rita M. Hanson, M.D., FACP, Vice resident for Medical Affairs at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, a member of Covenant Healthcare, have been named 2006 Sacagawea Award Winners.
The award recipients are being recognized for their significant career accomplishments, commitment to community and support for the advancement of women. The 2006 Pathfinder Award will be given to Deloitte & Touche USA LLP for their Women’s Initiative (WIN) program. All will be honored at a dinner on March 8, 2006 at the Midwest Airlines Center.
The Sacagawea Awards dinner is held annually by Professional Dimensions. Proceeds in large part are meant to contribute to the organization’s chosen charity. Earlier this year Professional Dimensions chose the Women’s Harm Reduction Program at the Benedict Center to be the recipient of its charitable efforts for the next two years.
The Professional Dimensions Sacagawea Award is named after the Indian woman who led Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition to find the Pacific Ocean. Sacagawea was from the Soshone tribe. She is considered a trailblazer and is known for her leadership, intelligence, foresight, common sense and adaptability.
Susan E. Ela is one of the few nurses nationally who hold such a high level, broad executive positioning in a health system. Her extraordinary capability as a leader, her visionary ideas and her collaborative style has propelled her into the ranks of health care executive management positions. Her career with Aurora began in 1995 as the President of their Visiting Nurse Association of Wisconsin; she was named Senior Vice-President, Care Management/Quality in 1988, and the titled was broadened in 2001 to be Senior Clinical Vice President, Care Management/Quality, Access and Integration. Prior to joining Aurora, Ms. Ela served as Vice President of Patient Care at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin for eight years.
Her community activities include co-chairing the Greater Milwaukee United Way campaign in 2003. She also serves on the boards of Aurora Health Care, the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and the Marquette University College of Nursing Development Board. She has leant her considerable talent and energy to other community organizations in the past.
Recognition has come from her peers both locally and nationally, and some follow. In 1995, she received the Milwaukee District Nurses Association Service Award for Nursing Administration. She has served on the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals, and is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Johnson & Johnson Wharton Fellows Program for Nurse Executives at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.
Rita M. Hanson, M.D., FACP has served St. Joseph Regional Medical Center and her patients for over 25 years. Besides the administrative responsibilities as Vice President for Medical Affairs at the 500-bed medical referral center, she is a primary care physician for over 600 patients.
Dr. Hanson received her medical education at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine and then entered a Transitional Year Internship at St. Joseph’s Hospital. It was then on to a two-year residency in Internal Medicine at the Mount Sinai Campus of the University of Madison Medical School in Milwaukee. She has also been a Clinical Instructor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin for approximately 15 years.
Dr. Hanson’s community service is exemplified in her volunteerism at the Greater Milwaukee Free Clinic. She was one of the first physicians to commit to serving the low income, uninsured persons at the clinic. The clinic expects to serve over 2,000 patients in 2005, which will add to their total of over 13,000 patient visits logged since opening. Dr. Hanson has been an integral part of this effort from the beginning and remains committed, even serving as a mentor to a group of medical students there.
She has created templates and models of care delivery that have been shared with over 100 practices in locations all around the country. She speaks on the topic on a regular basis, inspiring physicians to make a commitment to improving the quality of care they provide with the assistance of the appropriate use of technology. Her work has been reported on in national medical journals.
2006 Pathfinder Award Recipient Named:
Professional Dimensions has selected the Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (“Deloitte”) Women’s Initiative (WIN) as the 2006 Pathfinder Award Recipient. Briefly, the Pathfinder Award recognizes organizations that are generally supportive of women through programs that promote opportunities to develop and use their leadership skills.
In 1991, concerned that there were only four women out of 50 partner candidates and that women were leaving the firm in much greater numbers than men even after years of heavy recruiting, Deloitte established a task force to address the issue. The result was the formation of WIN two years later. The charge was to address perceived obstacles to the advancement of women, work/life issues for both women and men, and a male-dominated environment.
A number of initiatives emerged, and more continue to evolve. For instance, “Flexibility & Choice” seeks to give employees greater control over how, when and where they work. Additionally, a pilot of “Personal Pursuits Program” allows participants to take up to five years off to pursue personal goals, while staying connected to the Deloitte U.S. Firms. It is currently in 14 cities across the country. A new “Team Effectiveness Planning Process” was designed to embed effective management practices. As Lisa Uy Fernandez, Milwaukee WIN Leader, states, “Simply put, the WIN program model works.”
Founded in 1978, Professional Dimensions is an organization of more than 350 members from southeastern Wisconsin. It promotes the personal and professional growth of women through social and business exchange and through community participation. For an invitation to this event, contact the Professional Dimensions office at 414-374-3570. (pd@ywcamilw.org).
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