The Women Healthcare Executive Network (WHEN) of South Florida’s advisory group held its initial meeting for its “Advancing Leadership Roles for Women in Healthcare” mentoring program on January 10 at Parkway Regional Medical Center.

(l-r) Barbara Ann Perez, President-Elect, Director of Imaging and Therapeutic Services for Jackson Memorial Hospital; Byung Park, Recording Secretary, Liver/GI Transplant Coordinator, UM/Jackson; Rene Stanford, Treasurer, Grants Management Associate with UM’s Center on Aging; Dr. Nancy Borkowski, President, Associate Professor at St. Thomas University; Wilma Torres, 2004 Past President, Vice President, Coleman Consulting Group; Michelle Foris-Marsh, WHEN member, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Plantation General Hospital and Westside Regional Medical Center; Alex Johnson, 2003 Past President, Vice President, Coleman Consulting Group

The WHEN advisory group’s membership represents over 90 senior female executives from most of South Florida’s hospitals, health systems, outpatient facilities, long-term care facilities, managed care organizations, and universities who wish to assist other women by either being a mentor or by helping the mentee in locating an appropriate mentor.

Members of Mentoring Program’s Advisory Group (l-r) Dr. Gloria Deckard, Coordinator of Health Administration Programs, FIU; Sheri Ivey, Director of Utilization Management, Humana; Urmala Roopnarinesingh, Director of Marketing and Development, Barry University’s School of Nursing

Dr. Nancy Borkowski, President of WHEN and associate professor at St. Thomas University, relates that, “women accounted for only 14 to 19 percent of the top management positions in healthcare organizations nationwide based on recent surveys by the American Hospital Association and Catalyst Inc. WHEN’s goal for 2006 is to establish a multi-disciplinary, community based mentoring program in order to best meet the diverse needs of South Florida’s female undergraduate and graduate health management students, early careerist, and other female healthcare professionals in attaining their career goals.

WHEN’s long-term goal is to design activities that foster supportive relationships among women to meet the needs of the participants, such as, one-on-one mentoring, small group mentoring, and large group activities.”