"Chapter 03: Working with Community Health Centers" by Louise Villejo and Tacey A. Rosolowski PhD
 
Chapter 03: Working with Community Health Centers

Chapter 03: Working with Community Health Centers

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Description

Ms. Villejo talks about her first job after college, working with the Rio Grande Federation of Health Care Centers. She explains the lessons she learned working with individuals with very limited access to health care. She also comments on what she learned from watching ineffective leaders.

Identifier

VillejoL_01_20150507_C03

Publication Date

5-7-2015

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Professional Path; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Personal Background; Influences from People and Life Experiences; Professional Path; Experiences Related to Gender, Race, Ethnicity; Leadership; Professional Values, Ethics, Purpose

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

That’s neat. That’s neat. Now tell me about bringing your college to a close and your next step from there.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

So that was interesting. As I mentioned, I started out in biology, and then switched over to psychology because of a growing interest there. And I had been very active, as I mentioned, at U of H. And we did a lot of connections with the organizations that we worked with in the community. And so unbeknownst to me, there weren’t a lot of positions available for bachelors’ degrees in psychology. (laughter) So I was quite shocked when I found that out. Luckily I was able to get a position working with—it was the Rio Grande Federation of Health Care Centers. And they provided support to community health centers, migrant community health centers. Kind of administrative support and processes and how to run, because they were in the community, and people from the community that might not have had a health administration degree or whatever. So that was a really—I helped them do some research and support. And they traveled. I was able to travel a little bit to the different health centers to see. So that was a really great experience. And from there I decided to go to the school of public health.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Before I ask you more about that, that experience with the Rio Grande Federation, that sounds like an amazing experience, I mean kind of windows into all sorts of communities all over Texas. Tell me about your big lessons from that or things that maybe surprised you, really made you grow.

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

And actually it was in the Southwest. So we got to go to New Mexico and Arizona and Texas. And I was able to go to some national conferences for community health centers, National Association of Community Health Centers, and learn from the people that I was working with as far as supporting those centers, and what they were doing, providing services to people that really didn’t have a lot of access to health care. So that was a tremendous experience for me. Part of that tremendous experience was learning that a bad situation is a good learning experience. The person that happened to be the director had been a trainer, and he was an excellent trainer, but he wasn’t a very good director. And there were just some I would say unethical situations. And so I just really learned that even organizations and people that you think are really there to do the best for people that need it, sometimes they are not what you would hope that they would be.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah. You’re not the first person who’s told a story about learning from a negative model. How much you can glean from that. It also goes to the issue of how it can be a challenge sometimes to find leadership education. How do you get that experience? How do you get that direct education?

Louise Villejo, MPH, MCHES:

And what they call the Peter Principle. He was a great trainer. But he had absolutely no skills as a leader of an organization. And so that was a very big learning experience. And I moved from there to go to graduate school.

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Chapter 03: Working with Community Health Centers

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