Sandra Connell

Honestly, I had a good dad. We didn't have a lot of money, so I had to pay for college on my own. We grew up on the farm, and I had to pay for college on my own. But he always, always told me that I could do whatever I set my mind to, and that has yet to fail me. So if I set my mind to something, a goal that I see, something I want to accomplish, a degree that I want to have, a certification that I want to have, I mean, that has just kind of stuck with me, because I mean, of all the people, I really believe that he believed in me. I think that strong fathers provide a great foundation for strong daughters. Growing up as a child, I couldn't see anything that I couldn't do, because he instilled that in me, that whatever I choose to do, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna force myself to do it.

I think there are different aspects that you could provide someone advice on, and it really depends on where they're at and some of the things that they have experienced in their life. For instance, if you have an athlete who is interested in going into leadership or healthcare, it's easy to relate dynamics of a team, and how you provide leadership on a team, and how you're there for each other, and you work with one another to how things kind of work in healthcare. If you're providing advice to an individual, a young lady who has not played any type of team sports and is just really good academically, I would say that while it's great to have all of that intelligence, you kind of have to have people skills as well. You have to be able to be the kind of leader that not just leads, but you interact with folks, and you understand their struggles and work on the ground with them, so you kind of need that teamwork aspect. In order to lead a group, you have to know what it's like to be a part of that group, I think.

I think that challenges are always access to healthcare. I live in a very, our facility is in a pretty underserved area for healthcare, and so access to healthcare for a lot of the folks in my area is a huge challenge right now. It's a good thing that organizations are making strides to make those things equitable.

Honesty, reliability, and integrity are the values most important to me. I think that honesty, when it comes to leadership and working with your team, is so important. I think that's the only way to reach a goal that's realistic. You set expectations, and you have communication with your team on how we can achieve those goals. It can't just be your direction. You can't just say we're gonna increase revenue by this much this year and just leave it at that. You have to get buy-in and input from your team, and they need to be honest, realistic conversations. Setting goals that are unrealistic and that people can't achieve only sets you up for failure. So, reliability, integrity, all of those things - you can't be successful without any of those things.