Jun 2023
Leadership Missouri Group Visits Campus Renewal
May 2023 -
Leaders from a variety of industries throughout Missouri visited the Washington University Medical Campus in May as part of Leadership Missouri, a program of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce that aims to enhance leadership skills and deepen participants’ knowledge of the state’s opportunities and challenges.
BJC’s Government Relations team invited the group to the campus. Leann Chilton, BJC vice president of government relations, says, “When people think of BJC, it is in the context of providing health care services or as a large employer. The questions we try to answer for visiting leaders is what does it take to train health care professionals and why all the cranes?”
The first stop was Goldfarb School of Nursing, where participants learned about the school’s range of undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs and how those programs are meeting the challenges of today’s nursing profession. They also toured the simulation labs, recognized as a Center of Educational Excellence and Accreditation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
Next, Donna Ware, BJC executive director of planning & design, and Christopher Dean, BJC executive director of the Campus Renewal Project, led a campus tour, explaining the four campus construction projects and why BJC and Washington University work together to continually invest in patient care and research facilities.
The tour was eye-opening for Amanda Good, executive director, Missouri Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, as she realized the scale of the medical campus and the impact it has beyond the city of St. Louis. “I was shocked by the number of people BJC employs, as well as the size of the campus,” she says. “It's important for Leadership Missouri and anyone interested in the state's economic development to learn about BJC and Washington University's growth and impact. Health care is the largest employment sector in the state, and there is lifesaving research being done at Wash U. Investing in those resources will continue to draw talent to Missouri from all over the world.”
The tour continued at the Campus Renewal Project’s Career Resource Center, where participants learned more about all the construction on the campus, BJC’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program on Campus Renewal and the outreach to high school students introducing them to careers in construction and health care.
Kansas City Councilwoman Melissa Robinson appreciates BJC’s outreach to youth and was impressed learning about the DEI program. “The diversity and inclusion work was the most impressive part of the tour, primarily because of BJC’s engrained expectation to ensure equitable distribution of opportunity,” she says. “The saying goes, ‘you can’t become what you don’t know. Exposing youth to careers and helping them along their exploratory path is critical to building a strong workforce. BJC gets it, and I am so proud of what you are accomplishing.”
Good adds, “As the executive director of the Missouri Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs, teaching our youth about the great-paying jobs that await them is imperative. College may not be the right track for everyone immediately following high school, or ever, but that doesn't mean they have to miss out on quality jobs with advancement opportunities and good benefits.”
BJC director of anchor initiatives, Christopher Nolan, is a member of Leadership Missouri's current class. "I was proud to see BJC as one of our site visits," says Nolan. "Our organization is truly committed to improving the health of those that we serve, and it was great to share the breadth of the work happening at BJC.”
Chilton was grateful for the BJC team members who engaged and educated the group. “To be a world-class provider we need talented, educated health care workers and we need to keep our structures in world-class condition. We also want to be informative about our work in DEI and why it matters to the communities we serve. Last, but equally important, BJC is also an economic engine in jobs, equipment, and services. We are an extraordinary health care provider in no small part because of the training mission and the work that happens behind the scenes to make BJC a top ranked provider of care.”