Monique Porter, FACHE
Director of Strategic Initiatives and Oncology
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Regent for Massachusetts
Message From Your ACHE Regent
Winter 2024
Thank you for the privilege of being your Regent for the past three years! I have been humbled by so many amazing leaders I have met through my journey and to have represented you and our Massachusetts ACHE chapter. It has been a tremendous learning experience and I’m thrilled to be providing a warm hand off to our new Regent, Justine Zilliken, FACHE.
With the beginning of a new year, ACHE and ACHE of Massachusetts have been reviewing our strategic plans and refreshing them with updated goals. At its final meeting of the year, the ACHE Board of Governors met the strategic plan, budgets, and work plans for 2024 for both ACHE and the Foundation of ACHE. ACHE follows a three-year strategic planning cycle, and 2023 was year two. In year two, the goal is to confirm the direction of the strategic plan. After discussion and field review, The Board approved the strategic plan, making no changes for 2024–2026. The ACHE Strategic Plan Priorities included being:
- A Trusted Partner
- Technology Acceleration Plan
- FACHE Leadership Campaign
- A Catalyst
- Implement DEI Next-Level Strategy
- Fund for Healthcare Leadership Campaign Development
- A Connector
- ACHE/Chapter Partnership
These goals will support our local ACHE of MA chapter and continue to grow our partnership with ACHE.
At the local level, our ACHE of MA Board conducted a strategic planning retreat in January to outline the goals for the coming year and to discuss implementation of the new Early Careerist Vice Chair positions and the elevation of DEI in our chapter.
Early Careerists
In 2023, ACHE of MA embraced a significant shift to enhance the involvement and progression of our early careerists within the Chapter’s Standing Committees to foster inclusivity, incorporate early careerist perspectives in decision-making, and open new leadership avenues. The decision to integrate the ECN Committee was unanimously supported at our December 14 Annual Business Meeting. Core to our integration effort is the creation of an Early Careerist Vice Chair position for non-administrative Standing Committees, which include Program, Communications, Membership, and Sponsorship.
The Early Careerist Vice Chair (ECVC) will provide a critical perspective in the strategic development of each Committee as well as inform the planning and execution of activities to attract and engage early careerists across the healthcare industry. This role will be a representative leader from among early careerists and will work closely with the Committee Chair and the Co-Chair to nourish the retention of early careerists as an advocate for Chapter development that caters to early careerist development interests and needs.
Vice Chairs are a way to ensure continuity in committee leadership and are helpful to spread out the workload of the Committee. While the Committee Co-Chair will continue to serve as the immediate successor to the Chair, the ECVC role provides an opportunity for succession planning whether it be within the same Committee, other Standing Committee or towards greater leadership opportunities in the Chapter.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In a message sent to our chapter members, Ali S. Raja, MD, FACHE our Chapter President, described our chapter plans to elevate DEI in our chapter and beyond. He noted that our Board’s strategic retreat, coupled with ongoing dialogues, has underscored the potential to elevate the impact of DEI further. With that in mind we plan to weave DEI initiatives and objectives seamlessly into the fabric of our Standing Committees, aiming for quantifiable progress in our programs as a hallmark of our collective success.
To accomplish this, our chapter is piloting a novel DEI Committee redesign. Members will have the opportunity to act as DEI Representatives within our Sponsorship, Program, Membership & Advancement, and Communications Committees. These roles will be instrumental in embedding DEI goals into each Committee’s Charter. We are also maintaining a designated DEI Committee Board seat during this pilot phase. Carla Villacorta has graciously agreed to continue to serve in this capacity, contributing her expertise to the planning of ACHE of MA’s Q3 2024 DEI panel event in collaboration with the Program Committee. We invite and encourage members passionate about advancing DEI to express their interest in joining this pilot initiative by reaching out to Carla or the respective Standing Committee Chairs:
- Sharri Robbins (Program Committee)
- David J. Reisman, FACHE (Membership and Advancement)
- Zach Shulkin (Communications)
- Alan J. Goldberg, LFACHE (Sponsorship)
We are excited to put these plans into place, to strengthen our chapter and build on our vision of being Bolder, Brighter, Together!
In case you missed it, I wanted to encourage all of you to share your professional announcements. ACHE provides you the ability to improve your visibility in the healthcare field and build your professional brand by sharing career updates with ACHE. Have you started a new job or been promoted recently? Or are you planning to retire? Let ACHE know so you can potentially be listed in the “On the Move” section of Healthcare Executive magazine! All you have to do is email both your former and new job titles, organizations, locations and a high-resolution headshot to he-editor@ache.org.
Lastly, I hope to see you at Congress! Please reach out so we can connect via the ACHE 365 App – I would love to see you. If you can’t make it to Congress this year, you also have the opportunity to attend the 2024 ACHE Boston Cluster July 29–31: Build a Better Future for Healthcare. The 2024 Boston Cluster provides up to 24 ACHE In-Person Education credits toward FACHE advancement or recertification. The program provides healthcare professionals the opportunity to discuss the rapidly changing future of our industry while developing the skills, knowledge and mindset required to help lead your staff and organization toward new success in 2024 and beyond. Click here for more details: Boston Cluster 2024 | American College of Healthcare Executives (ache.org)
And, the next ACHE of MA event is Virtual Lunch-N-Learn Skills Spotlight: “Navigating Career Options – Exploring Healthcare Consulting” (massache.org). This event is free and open for all to join.
“Don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.” —Michelle Obama
Take care,
Monique
Monique
Check our local ACHE events out here:
https://www.massache.org/events/ to support your continuous learning!
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