Salute to Minorities in Healthcare

Ana Mederos began her career more than 25 years ago at Hialeah Hospital, the same medical center she now leads. From her early days as a registered nurse tending to patients, many of whom were from her native country of Cuba, and listening to their concerns, Mederos has always understood the importance of patient satisfaction.

As chief executive officer, first at North Shore Medical Center in Miami, and now at Hialeah Hospital, she has taken that understanding to the next level, placing a significant focus on employee and patient satisfaction.

“I’ve always believed that satisfaction ratings from patients and employees alike are very important to an organization’s well being, especially a hospital,” said Mederos. “And I think my days on the floors of this hospital, tending to patients, have helped shape the leadership talents and vision I bring to my position.” During her time as CEO at North Shore Medical Center, Mederos placed a great deal of focus on raising patient and employee satisfaction levels, leading to increases in these two important areas. Additionally, her emphasis on physical hospital improvements helped realign the medical center to better meet the growing needs of its community.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation honored Mederos in 2003 with the Circle of Excellence Award, which recognizes outstanding performance of hospital CEOs.

In 2004 her colleagues across the state presented Mederos with the Best Hospital CEO award for her work at North Shore.

Now that Mederos has returned “home” to the hospital where it all started, she continues to provide that same breadth of leadership and experience. Leading a hospital that provides health care to a predominately Hispanic market is just an added bonus for Mederos.

“Being Cuban-American, I am happy to be at Hialeah Hospital with its large Hispanic patient base,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter which country your family is from or the color of your skin, we are here to provide excellent health care to whoever comes through our doors.”

Diana Smith left her native Jamaica in 1987 to attend Florida International University with the intent of becoming a dentist. While she was in school, someone suggested that, in order to pay tuition, she become a nurse first. She had little interest in being a nurse, but she was a practical woman. She started in the nursing program.

In 1993 she was working as an oncology nurse when a cancer patient asked if she loved her job. Smith reflected that she liked her job; it would be better if she could spend more time at the bedside, being with her patients. Her patient told Smith about a hospice with an office on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. Smith knew nothing about hospice, but the next day she was there, inquiring about job openings. “You’re very young,” the interviewer told her. “I’ve seen applicants this afternoon with 16 years’ experience. Why would I hire you?”

“I have no bad habits,” Smith replied. “You can mold me to be whatever you want me to be.”

VITAS took Diana Smith, R.N., up on her offer, “molding” her over the next 13 years to be whatever was needed at the time.

She’s worked for VITAS in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. She’s been responsible for 15 patients in the inner city, where the drug dealers on the corner promised to watch her car while she visited patients. She’s worked weekends changing dressings and starting IV’s for AIDS patients. She got a short course in Spanish as a team nurse in Kendall. For five years she cared for her own young family by working the second shift in a hospice inpatient unit while her husband worked days. She was tapped to be the only team manager at the Palm Beach County program in 2004. Today, as patient care administrator, she oversees the six team managers the Palm Beach County program now has.

“And all that time I was always with VITAS,” she says. “That was good.” Smith doesn’t see patients on a regular basis any more, but her experiences serve her well as a manager of others. She reflects back on her years in the field often. “Now those years are shedding light on others’ problems,” she says.

Among those reflections is the realization that, while her introduction as a home care nurse to America’s poverty and blight was “new for me and sometimes scary,” it might in the long run stand out as the most rewarding of her hospice experiences. She has no regrets about not attending dental school. She works a fairly normal work week these days, helping the Palm Beach program grow, and she can fish, boat or camp with her husband and children on weekends.

“My goal is to influence change here,” she says. “It will be interesting to see the number of patients we care for each day continues to grow.”

Isadore Mizell took his last name and his freedom from the north Florida plantation he left to start a new life in Dania Beach, near Fort Lauderdale. He believed education was the key to success for African Americans, and built the first black school there. His children became Broward County’s black professionals of the ’40s: teachers, a photographer, a funeral home director, a doctor. Deborah Mizell’s father was the first African American surgeon in Broward County, and head of the NAACP.

He, too, instilled in his children the importance of education; all three are professionals. Deborah is a nurse. She was working for a managed care company a decade ago when someone told her, “You’d be good at hospice. You’re compassionate, you’re not condescending and you really care.” It took Mizell five years to test the theory, but it turns out her then-co-worker was right.

Today Mizell is an admissions nurse with VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Broward County. “We walk in after the doctor has given the bad news,” she says evenly. “These patients and families are angry, sad or looking for answers. I try to keep it real, yet compassionate. I tell them, ‘It’s going to happen to all of us; you have the blessing of knowing.’ We help the patient and family make the transition.”

She admits the Hispanic and African American communities can be more challenging. “There has been an increase in the numbers of minorities turning to hospice care, but still there is reluctance,” she acknowledges. Her job is to educate, “but first they have to trust you.” It helps that she is a Mizell, recognized and respected in the Broward community.

Community activism was also instilled by her forebears. “Family, community, job: that’s my balance,” says Mizell.

Her proudest accomplishment, she insists, is “being the mother of three wonderful children” (for the record: an attorney, an auditor and an assistant principal). Her career goal is simply to feel good at the end of the day about the patients and families she has helped, something she has achieved at VITAS.

“I’m too people-oriented to enjoy management,” she says. “I like meeting and helping patients and families at a very difficult time in their life—I’ve been there. I help them face reality, and then turn the care over to the hospice team. Five days a week I get to go home and know that I helped someone. That’s a good feeling!”

“Leadership isn’t managing,” Betty Bel, RN, MSHA, senior patient care administrator for VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Miami–Dade maintains. “Leadership is setting yourself up as an example for others to follow.”

It’s a lesson Bel may have learned in 1962, when she was seven years old and her parents flew from Cuba to Miami with two kids and three changes of clothes to escape the Castro regime. They found jobs, helped exiles that followed, and encouraged their children to assimilate. “It was tough for my parents,” Bel reflects, “but not for me. I had my family; I was secure.”

Today Bel is an achiever, an asset to her team and to the company as a whole. She’s an entrepreneur, a mentor, a groomer of employees, a facilitator of change, a measurer of quality. Her love and respect for family and culture inspire her staff’s love and respect for her. She has a master’s degree in health care administration with hopes of returning this year to get her doctorate.

“I’ve always felt the need to excel, to have a career, to be the best I could be. I’m not sure why, but it’s propelled me. My brother and sister are the same way. I guess it’s to prove to ourselves and our parents that their sacrifice was worth it,” she says.

In that long-ago Miami, Betty was the only Spanish-speaking student in her class. Today her Cuban background and bilingual capabilities are invaluable in a county where the majority of the population is Hispanic. “It’s interesting,” she says. “My world isn’t 100 percent Cuban or 100 percent American. It’s the blend of both cultures that makes me who I am.”

And it’s not enough to understand the Latin culture. VITAS has a strategic focus to become familiar with all the cultures represented in Miami–Dade; Bel was asked, for example, to learn about and help others understand death and dying in the Jewish culture.

Whatever she’s learning, Bel shares her knowledge and expects others to do the same. “I ask my staff questions—How can we make this a better workplace? How can we make our patients more comfortable?—and then encourage discussion.” She maintains a “leadership library” of books, CDs and articles that allows all managers to access new ideas. “These are people with busy lives and demanding families,” she says. “You can’t manage people to be leaders, but you can give them the tools.”

Kayci Maurer, another patient care administrator in the Miami-Dade program, attributes Bel’s warmth and people skills both to her Cuban culture and her dedication to the VITAS values. “When you go to Betty she’ll stop what she is doing, look you in the face and take the time to listen, no matter how busy she is,” Maurer says. “I’ve learned a lot from her. I’ve seen the way people embrace her. It may mean she stays after hours to get her work done, but she’s there with you when it’s needed.”

Synita Houston, CNA, CHPNA, has dedicated the last twenty-three years to caring for patients as a certified nursing assistant. The past 17 years have been the most rewarding for her as she has helped thousands of patients and families under the services of Hospice of Palm Beach County (HPBC). When asked how she performs her job day after day with patients at the end of life, she responds, “I am motivated by my patients because they need me. As a CNA with HPBC, I am encouraged to spend the time I need to provide whatever care my patients need. I am an important member of the Hospice Team. It is what keeps me in the field of nursing.”

Synita embraces HPBC’s high standards of care and has taken every opportunity to enhance her skills. She took the courses and exam required to earn her certification in Hospice and Palliative Care and assumed the added responsibility of serving as a preceptor for new HPBC employees. As an involved community member, she sees the lack of understanding about Hospice services within the African American community and has taken an active role in spreading the word about Hospice care.

“As an African American, I know that some families find it difficult to request hospice services because we have always believed we should care for our own and not ask for outside help. We treat all our patients as members of our own family providing comfort and dignity to the patient in the comfort of their home while supporting the family as well. I would not hesitate in recommending our services to any member of my family. In fact, my family is well aware of my wish for hospice services having completed “Five Wishes”, an easy to complete Advance Directive document.”

June of 2006 will mark her 18th year of service at HPBC. She says she doesn’t regret one day of it and is thankful to the organization and to the patients and families she has cared for. She considers it a privilege and honor to be invited into their lives during this difficult time. “The greatest reward of my day is to know that I leave my patients on a clean bed of sheets and comfortable from my loving touch as their CNA.”

Synita resides in Riviera Beach with her husband Carleton and son William. She has a son Quincy and a daughter Riesa. Her pride and joy are her three grandchildren, Kiara 12, Akhila 1 and Gabriel who was born in December.

Clarinda Shabazz, LCSW, CTS, knew little about hospice care when, in 1986, she was assigned an internship with Hospice of Palm Beach County (HPBC) as one of the requirements to earn her graduate degree in social work. Little did she suspect that this would develop into a 19-year career, working with patients and families as a team social worker and then moving into bereavement counseling with HPBC. As one of the longest tenured employees, the compassionate care she witnessed as an intern guided her to pursue a full time position at the end of her school commitment. People often question her about this decision to work with patients and families at the end of life instead of another mental health area. She quickly responds with one word – passion! “I am committed to my work because of my passion for helping people and making a positive difference in the lives of the families I touch. This is where I belong.”

In 2004 Clarinda joined the staff of the Horizons Bereavement Center, a program of Hospice of Palm Beach County as a bereavement counselor. The center provides individual and loss-specific group counseling to adults and children whose loved one has died in Hospice care or to anyone in the community in need. She was recently promoted to the position of Bereavement Supervisor serving as the center’s professional and administrative leader developing, directing, planning and assuring the coordination of bereavement care services as part of the comprehensive care provided by HPBC. “This is the only program that I know of that can benefit everyone in our community, as we all at some point will experience the loss of a loved one. Knowing that I have a part in making these services available is extremely rewarding,” adds Shabazz.

Shabazz graduated from Florida State University with a Bachelor of Social Work and holds a Master of Social Work from Barry University. She is also a certified trauma specialist. She serves as Palm Beach County Northern Sub-Unit Chair of the National Association of Social Workers, Financial Secretary of the Greater Palm Beaches Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and Treasurer of the Palm Beach Chapter of the National Association Black Social Workers. She has earned the respect of her peers having been voted employee of the quarter in 1997 and in 2004. She will receive the National Association of Social Workers 2006 Social Worker of the Year (Palm Beach Chapter) in March. She resides in Riviera Beach with husband, Gary Garner and has one son Shadeed Shabazz.

As an African-American nurse, February’s Black History Month holds special significance for Brenda Floyd, LPN, coordinator of volunteer services, health promotions and community health educator at North Shore Medical Center in Miami. But with a jam-packed schedule of community outreach events, she has little time to sit back and reflect on her heritage.

A 30-year veteran of the health care industry, Brenda provides vital health services to many segments of the hospital and the community. She works tirelessly each day coordinating hospital volunteers, mentoring local teens and facilitating support groups for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, child-birth preparation and baby care. Her personal touches reach the hearts of her participants, such as the monthly baby showers she throws for expectant mothers.

However, Brenda’s personal commitment to the community does not stop there.

Brenda created and currently oversees a health ministry for her local church, Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist Church in Miami. Within the ministry, she organizes and implements monthly health screenings and speaks to children on self-esteem, healthy eating and personal hygiene. Brenda even rolls up her sleeves to feed 50 to 70 kids from the youth choir every Monday night after rehearsal!

Around Miami, Brenda provides parenting lectures to various local organizations, facilitates at-risk teen pregnancy programs for Christ Crusader and gives monthly health talks to seniors at New Horizon’s Senior Center.

Brenda earned her nursing certificate in practical nursing from Lindsay Hopkins Vocational School in Miami. She is a certified HIV counselor, basic life support instructor and childbirth educator specialist. North Shore Medical Center recognized her impressive work as a dedicated and valuable link to the community by naming her Employee of the Month in 2004.

With an inspiring fulfillment of her personal motto – “The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people” (Leo Tolstoy) – Brenda Floyd serves as an example of dedication and compassion to the Miami community.

Mylissa Graber, MD, FACEP is an outstanding example of a woman persevering in a male dominated profession. She is with the emergency department physician management company Phoenix Physicians and practices as an emergency doctor at Coral Springs Medical Center. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of EMpulse Newsletter, a publication of the Florida College of Emergency Physicians.

A minority in her field, Dr. Mylissa Graber, MD, FACEP, has always had the drive to be recognized as a powerful female force in the emergency department.

“Although women have come a long way in medicine, it is still viewed as a male dominated profession, especially in emergency medicine,” said Dr. Graber. “I still face prejudicial stereotypes and have met these challenges head on by working harder to prove myself as an excellent physician. Most importantly, I am trusted by my colleagues and enjoy my work tremendously.”

In addition to her busy schedule in the ED, Dr. Graber is involved in many organizations such as the Coral Springs Medical Center Pediatric ED Quality Committee and the Broward County Medical Association. She also services as an ACEP Councilor for the Florida College of Emergency Physicians. Furthermore, she is the founder and FCEP Liaison to the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association of Florida 2004.

In her spare time, Dr. Graber is involved in various community organizations such as the American Red Cross. She also assists in providing flu shots to the Fort Lauderdale community.

Throughout his 24 years in emergency medicine, Jerry Brooks, MD, FACEP, has always made significant efforts to leave an impact on the South Florida medical community in which he practices.

Dr. Brooks is with the emergency department physician management company Phoenix Physicians and is chief and medical director of the emergency department at North Broward Medical Center (NBMC). He is also active in community outreach, philanthropic and motivational organizations.

Since joining NBMC 15 years ago, Dr. Brooks has been instrumental in several significant advances at the hospital. For example, he played a major role in implementing the “Doctor in Triage” program, which distinguishes NBMC from other hospitals in the greater South Florida medical community.

From a long list of accomplishments, Dr. Brooks described one of his greatest professional endeavors as becoming the first African American emergency department chief in the District.

In his spare time, Dr. Brooks and his family participate in various community organizations. Community involvement has always been important to him, and despite his busy schedule, he always finds the time to give back. One of his personal philosophies: “Everyone’s contribution to a cause is valuable, like the links in a chain” describes his dedication to his community.

Having been in practice for close to 25 years, Dr. Rudolph Moise has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the patients he serves. Specializing in General Practice and non-surgical Orthopedics, Dr. Moise continues to provide an un-paralleled level of quality medical care. He established Comprehensive Health Center in 1985.

Born in Haiti, Dr. Moise’s contribution to the Haitian-American community is immeasurable. In 2004 he was given the Gubernatorial appointment by Governor Jeb Bush on the Haiti Commission. In addition, Dr. Moise is President and Founder of Operation Kimbe Foundation Inc., a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide assistance to Haitian-based organizations that furnish medical and health related support as well as address environmental problems that impact the lives of the Haitian people. In 1995, Dr. Moise was also a Founding Member of the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians. Recently, he donated $25,000 to the Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church, for the church’s construction fund.

Additionally, Dr. Moise was very instrumental in removing Haitians from the Federal and Drug Administrator’s AIDS risk list so that Haitians may participate in the American Red Cross Blood Donation Program. He has also worked extensively at Federal, State and Local levels to end what some call discriminatory Immigration policies against Haitians.

Dr. Moise has been the Medical Director of Miami-Dade Ambulance Services since 2001; the Chief of Hospital Services for the Homestead Air Reserve Station since 1996; is a Founder and the Associate Medical Director for Phytrust, a minority physician network and is the Vice-President of Florida Access Independent Physician Association. In addition, Dr. Moise also serves on the Executive Committee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and is Co-Chair of the Chamber’s Healthcare Committee. He also serves as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Dr. Moise is a recipient of several community awards that throughout the years have recognized his contributions to the community. These include the Excellence Award from the Haitian Association Against Cancer, The Entrepreneurial Excellence Award from the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, the Black Business of the Year Awards from the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and recognition as of Miami-Dade County’s top 10 Black Businesses by the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce.

Janice Fulmore-Tigner has been instrumental in creating the African-American outreach initiative at Hospice by the Sea. Funded by grants from several foundations, the program is part of Hospice by the Sea’s ongoing “Abriendo Puertas” (Opening doors) effort to provide access to hospice services to under-served communities.

On September 10, 2005, she opened a new African-American outreach office located in Deerfield Beach. Having been born and raised in Deerfield, it is Janice’s hope that she will be able to use the new storefront office to reach out to the African-American population in that and other communities in Palm Beach and Broward County.

Over the last several years, Janice has developed a keen interest in educating community leaders, healthcare professionals and others about the growing need for end-of-life care.

National data shows that less than 3% of eligible African-American use hospice at end-of-life. Janice attributes this low utilizations to lack of awareness, but also to a couple of cultural factors such as a strong community spirit of helping one another, and, a religious faith that continues to be a positive hallmark of the African-American community.

Regardless of these two cultural strengths, there is also a real concern on her part that families are often suffering needlessly because they are not aware, or, when needed, they are unable to access appropriate services. When families are faced with a terminal illness, Janice hopes her educational and informational efforts will help those in her community realize the benefits of hospice care. For more information about the program, please call Janice at (954) 478-9880.

A Palestinian who is a native of Jordan, Nidal “Nick” Masri, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon at Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, specializes in body contouring procedures for patients who have experienced significant weight loss, typically after bariatric surgery.

After experiencing major weight loss, patients look forward to a new, healthier perspective on life, expecting to look and feel better about themselves. However, some patients face an unexpected post-operative challenge – the pounds are gone, but the skin is not. Loose excess skin resulting from dramatic weight loss leaves the body with an irregular look and can make patients feel uncomfortable. In addition, weak and sagging skin can become infected and cause serious health problems.

This excess skin, which has lost its elasticity and cannot conform to a new body size, normally appears in the face, neck, jowls, upper arms, breasts, abdominal area, buttocks, groin and thighs, leaving patients with a sad and droopy appearance.

Dr. Masri’s body-contouring procedure has been a saving-grace to many bariatric patients unable to enjoy the full benefits of their new profound weight loss. His body contouring procedure helps improve the shape and tone of the underlying tissue that supports fat and skin and removes excess sagging portions. “Body contouring typically results in a smoother appearance and, in many cases, is the final phase of the massive weight loss experience,” said Dr. Masri. “Patients who undergo these procedures generally leave healthier and feeling better about their appearance.”

Dr. Masri received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and his medical degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania. He previously practiced with Atlanta Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Consultants P.C. in Atlanta, Ga. Currently a member of the Florida Medical Association, Dade County Medical Association and American Medical Association, Dr. Masri has also served as an Associate Fellow for the American College of Surgeons. He lives in Hollywood.

Justo Luis Pozo is president of Preferred Care Partners. Pozo is responsible for the general and financial management of this company.

Prior to forming Preferred Care Partners in 2001, Pozo served two years as executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Excalibur Health Systems, a health management firm that is also the PSO’s financial sponsor. Pozo supervised Excalibur’s day-to-day operations and financial activities.

His achievements include supervising a task force that laid the groundwork for this innovative healthcare plan to operate by achieving state licensure as a PSO, certification by the Agency for Healthcare Administration as a certified healthcare provider, and federal qualification by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services to operate as a Medicare + Choice health plan. He was also responsible for acquisitions and integration of their operations, upgrading of accounting and reporting standards, and investor relations.

Pozo is a certified public accountant who operated as an individual practitioner and partner in the local public accounting firm of Rodriguez, Trueba & Pozo Certified Public Accountants between 1984 and 1999. During this period he developed and advised a healthcare clientele that included physician groups such as primary care physicians and specialists, dental groups, organizations offering ancillary services, management service organizations, medical centers, third-party administrators, health maintenance organizations and related companies. He was also involved in implementing information systems and control procedures, forecasting, advising on tax issues, auditing and representation for mergers, acquisitions and consolidations.

Pozo earned a bachelor of business administration degree with a major in accounting from Florida International University in 1980 and obtained his CPA license in 1984 from the Florida Board of Accountancy. While at FIU, Pozo was a member of the Honorary Accounting Society. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. In 2004, the South Florida Business Journal recognized him as a Health Care Heavy Hitter and he was named to the 2004 Florida International University (FIU), College of Business, Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame. In addition, he was honored by FIU with a Distinguished Service Medallion in 2004 and was inducted into the Miami-Dade College Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his outstanding achievements.

Orlando Lopez-Fernandez, Jr., M.D., is chairman and chief medical officer for Preferred Care Partners. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez is responsible for all clinical matters relating to Preferred Care Partners. His duties include ensuring that members receive quality care and serving as chairperson of the quality improvement, utilization management and credentialing committees. As Chairman of the Board, his focus includes maintaining the strategic mission of Preferred Care as physician-driven with a focus on quality, cost effective healthcare.

A board-certified specialist in cardiology and internal medicine, Dr. Lopez-Fernandez has been in private practice in West Dade for 20 years. He also served as Director of Cardiology at both Kendall Regional Medical Center and International Hospital of Miami.

Dr. Lopez-Fernandez earned his MD degree from the University of Zaragoza School of Medicine in 1976 and has earned certification both by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine, (Cardiovascular Disease).

His cardiology fellowship, residencies and internship were at Christ Hospital, Oak Lawn, IL. He has made a number of scientific presentations and has been published in numerous medical journals. Dr. Lopez-Fernandez was recently selected as a finalist for South Florida Business Journals Physician of the Year Awards. In addition, in 2005 he was named a Healthcare Heavy Hitter by South Florida Business Journal.

Hurricane Wilma took its toll on Broward County creating disruption of business unlike any to befall Broward County for decades. Among the business victims of this unusual harsh hurricane was the North Broward Hospital District’s celebrated Minority Business Enterprise EXPO.

This very popular celebratory event, now in its tenth year, brings a new perspective to the venue of minority participation in the procurement of goods and service. The event itself is primarily a trinity of presentations of how the District pursues the purchases it needs to operate its four Medical Centers, its Health Park and its satellite ambulatory services.

(l-r) Carlos Sabater, General Managing Partner, Deloitte & Touche; Kim Griffin-Hunter, Partner, Deloitte & Touche; Wil Trower, CEO, NBHD; Jacob Jackson, Member Board of Commissioner

(l-r) Carlos de Cespedes, CEO, Pharmed; Wil Trower CEO, NBHD; Jacob Jackson, Member of Board of Commissioners

But it is more than just power point presentations. It is the District “educating” the buying public about the actual products and services it buys yearly. The presentations also inform the audience on the kinds of goods it has a history of buying and in some instances it tells the registrants of the products they will likely buy in the immediate future.

The idea behind it all can be found in one of its slogans – “We’re always looking for a few MORE good vendors”.

Some say the EXPO is the gathering of the eagles, referring to the many elected officials that attend the luncheon, as well as, the entire senior management family of the District. Even the luncheon, at no cost to the registrants, has become a draw because the event has a reputation of attracting nationally recognized keynoters.

(l-r) Hayden Joseph, Senior Auditor NBHD; Wil Trower CEO, NBHD; Jacob Jackson, Member Board of Commissioners

(l-r) Dorsey Miller, a Representative of D. C. Miller & Assoc; Wil Trower CEO, NBHD; Jacob Jackson Member Board of Commissioners

The Office of Supplier Diversity, the departmental sponsor of the event, takes pride in the yearly success of the event – as measured by the consistent full capacity of attendees. However, what cannot be overlooked at the EXPO is the public recognition of those who have in some way distinguished themselves in the participation of minority vendors during business with the District. Four awards were to have been made.

Unfortunately Wilma did not let this happen – at least not on the occasion of the scheduled EXPO. Not to be deterred by this happenstance, the District chose to acknowledge these achievers at its regular public Minority Business Enterprise Committee meeting.

The MBE Award was won by the Pharmed Company; Deloitte and Touché won the non-minority award; Hayden Joseph, Senior Internal Auditor, was chosen for the prized Jus’ Cause Award; the annual MBE Chair Appreciation Award went to the immediate past chair of the MBE, Dorsey C. Miller.