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How did you end up in health care?

I’m a medical technologist by training, so I actually started my career in the hospital laboratory doing testing for transfusions, making sure that the blood that needed to go to a patient was prepared. I did that for six years before coming to the Blood Center, so my entire career I have had the desire to be working in health care.

Are there a couple of priorities you’re focused on initially?

We are really working on two big initiatives. The first one is something we’re calling process excellence; a lot of other organizations call that lean manufacturing. We’re looking for ways to drive waste out of the organization and ultimately cost out of the price of a unit of blood. We recognize that we are part of the big health-care economic situation where health-care costs are skyrocketing and people don’t have health-care insurance. So we’re trying to do our best to help lower those costs. The second big initiative we have is on service excellence. We really have a desire to be, for example, the Walt Disney World of blood centers. When you interact with The Blood Center of Iowa, we want you to have an experience that makes you want to come back regardless of the big needle stick or regardless of the situation that’s bringing you to us.

How would you describe your leadership style?

Although I have a technical background, I think my strength is that I’m a people manager and I tend to try to use the strengths and talents of the people around me and encourage them to do their jobs.

Who has influenced your leadership style?

I think there are two individuals as I think of my leadership style that I’ve worked with. One is Sheri Vohs (former Blood Center CEO). I think her leadership style for us was a great awakening. She did a very nice job of teaching all of us who had been in the industry how to look at what we do at the blood center from an outsider’s point of view. Early on in my career, I worked with another manager whose name was LaVonn Steiner. She taught me that it’s also about your heart. You’ve got to trust the people that you work with. You’ve got to value them, and it really is about reward and recognition.

What excites you most about taking this opportunity?

This is an organization I’ve worked at for 14 years and it is an organization that has the best mission possible. Our mission is “We save lives.” So every day you come to work, you know you’re impacting someone’s life positively. So what excites me is to see us go from what I would consider a good organization to a great organization by working through the people that we have and to really become a better partner to our hospitals and to our donors.

Is there an achievement you’re most proud of?

Probably the achievement I’m most proud of and the thing that was most difficult in my career, I had the opportunity to work with a national organization that the Blood Center belongs to, AABB. Basically this is the group that sets standards and policies for the blood bank industry. I had an opportunity to participate with four other people to develop our strategic plan as an industry and the things we needed to do in the next five to 10 years to be a better industry, to be a better health-care partner, to look at reimbursement issues, to look at all of the challenges facing not only health care but blood centers and transfusion services. It really helped me grow, become a better visionary, become more strategic and I’m very proud of that. My article was all about the service continuum from the donor to the hospital patient and what are the things we can do along that supply chain to make it better for the donor, physician and the patient who is receiving the blood products.

How do you escape work?

I am an avid flower gardener. In the spring, I can hardly wait to get out in the garden and dig around. I’m also a bit obsessed with the (Iowa State) Cyclone athletic department. I have tickets to football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball.

Do you still have a far-off distant career goal?

My joke has always been, once I’m done with my career here, then I’m going to have a garden center.