Advocacy Champions

August 2020 Advocacy Champion

1. Why is being an advocate so important to you?
Advocacy is a vital skill when trying to translate your personal insights and lived experiences gained over your lifetime with another audience or generation that is curious, open, and seeking to apply or use this ‘wisdom’, hopefully for serving humanity and their communities in beneficial ways. There are many ways to advocate for the values embodied in the vocation of medicine and the healing professions. There are also many levels, scales, and contexts in which to apply advocacy training to the diverse challenges beyond COVID-19 that have been unmasked, emerging, and yet to be confronted by physicians, healthcare teams, and champions for global sustainable development.

2. What health-care related issue(s) have you advocated for over the past year?
Better understanding of team dynamics, organizational learning (under crisis/pandemic situation) and creative collaborations beyond the patient-physician partnership. I have also advocated on restoring or maintaining trust alongside cultural humility, mutual respect, and team-based problem-solving amidst the challenges of navigating a “VUCA” environment (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous). Finally, I have advocated for bridging enlightened self-interests of multiple stakeholders from clinical, business, and public relations in order to support healing, innovation, philanthropy and altruism.

3. What advice would you offer to others who are interested in advocacy?
Never, never, never give up on your quest for realizing the calling of our medical profession and peace through health, education, and lifelong service learning. Ensure you’re doing the right thing for the right reason(s)…some things that are invaluable aren’t measurable and some measurements aren’t really value-add.

Past Advocacy Champions

• July 2020: Sen. Matt Klein, MD, Minnesota Senate
• June 2020: Nathan T. Chomilo, MD, FAAP, Minnesota Department of Human Services
• May 2020: Peter F. Bornstein, MD, MBA, St. Paul Infectious Disease Associates, Ltd.
• April 2020: Tom Schmidt, MS4, University of Minnesota Medical School
• March 2020: Rachel E. W. Tellez, MD, Park Nicollet Clinic – Brookdale
• February 2020: Dionne Hart, MD, DFAPA, Board Certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine
• January 2020: Heather Bell, MD, Family Medicine, CHI St. Gabriel's Health
• December 2019: Rep. Kelly Morrison, MD, Minnesota House of Representatives
• November 2019: Carolyn McClain, MD, EPPA
• October 2019: Renee Crichlow, MD, FAAP, U of M School of Medicine
• September 2019: Will Nicholson, MD, Family Medicine, St. John's Hospital
• August 2019: Lauren Williams, MD, Family Medicine,  Voyage Healthcare
• July 2019: Carl E. Burkland, MD, Retired Physician, New Prague
• June 2019: Marilyn J Peitso, MD, FAAP, Pediatric Hospitalist, CentraCare, St. Cloud