Since early in 2014, visitors to our website have found a panel of diverse faces — most smiling and all expressive — looking back at them from the screen.
When America’s Essential Hospitals adopted its new name in mid-2013 and overhauled its website about six months later, we wanted to capture the strong sense of community among our member hospitals and put a face — ultimately, many faces — on the vital work our members do.
The result was “our inspirations,” as we affectionately call this homepage gallery. These are the faces and stories behind essential hospitals. Each comes with a story that captures the essence of our members’ mission, as seen from various perspectives: hospital executives, patients turned patient advocates, a stroke survivor, physicians and nurses, and others.
Recently, we refreshed the inspiration faces and stories, and have added:
- Teresa Barrera-Anderson, MD, a Peruvian physician whose experience with a language barrier at a Minneapolis clinic inspired her to help Spanish-speaking communities as medical director of Hennepin Healthcare’s Brooklyn Park Clinic;
- Kyra Bradley, who came to Parkland Health & Hospital System, in Dallas, as a burn patient and family violence victim, and now works as a community development specialist in the hospital’s Victim Intervention Program and Rape Crisis Center;
- Jesse Green, Sinai Health System’s external affairs and campus and community development director, who was only 17 when he began working at the Chicago hospital as a peer educator on sexual and reproductive health for fellow high schoolers; and
- Khoi Luong, DO, chief medical officer, post-acute care, at NYC Health + Hospitals, who recently graduated from the association’s Fellows Program — his latest achievement in a career that began as a medical assistant in high school.
The common thread through these and the other stories on our homepage is a passion for helping others, especially those on the margins of society. It reflects the foundational commitment hospitals make when they join America’s Essential Hospitals: to serve vulnerable people and communities.
We hope you enjoy these new stories, and we hope they inspire you to help the people in your life who struggle with social and economic challenges. If you have a story of how an essential hospital helped you, please share it with us.
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