I am very pleased to announce that, effective September 1, Gail Atkinson will become Vice President of Operations, with oversight of Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and California. Pam Helm will be promoted to succeed Gail as Executive Director of our Texas Center.

In our most recent strategic planning process, we identified the goal of being the “Employer of Choice” as absolutely critical to our continued success. I believe that these two promotions constitute very important positive steps toward achievement of this goal – for two reasons.

First, our ability to develop leadership talent within Devereux is impressive. Of Devereux’s fifteen senior corporate officers, Gail is one of four who joined Devereux soon after graduation and have been with Devereux for more than thirty years. Since I became President-Elect of Devereux two and a half years ago, three Executive Directors moved into Corporate roles and two Executive Directors retired; all five new Executive Directors, like Pam, came from within the organization.

Second, we are proud of the increasing presence of women in our leadership team. It seems absolutely fitting for women to take leadership roles in an organization founded by a woman! Ten years ago, no Senior Vice Presidents or above were women, and only one Vice President was a woman. Today, three of four Senior Vice Presidents, six of the fifteen senior corporate officers, and seven of fourteen Center Directors are women.

Nevertheless, despite our strong commitment to diversity in our workforce, our record of hiring and promoting minorities to leadership positions is still not as strong as I, and Devereux, would like. While we certainly have more work to do, we are deeply committed to continuing our efforts to assure that we afford career development opportunities for all people in our organization and that we maintain an organizational culture that is attractive and nurturing for all people – regardless of their gender, background, beliefs, or disabilities.

Recognizing and promoting excellent employees, and continuing to build the diversity of our workforce, are two critical elements of being the Employer of Choice.