Leaders in Their Field – Healthcare Well-represented in 40 Under Forty Class of 2013

Editor’s Note: BusinessWest magazine, sister publication to HCN, recently introduced its 40 Under Forty Class of 2013, which will be honored on June 20 at a gala celebration at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House in Holyoke. This group includes several members who are making their mark professionally in the broad field of healthcare, while also contributing time, talent, and energy to the local community. They are:

Division Director, Outpatient Services Division, Gandara Center, age 39

William Davila tells his staff of more than 70 employees at Gandara Center’s two sites in Springfield that the work he does there is very personal because he grew up in the projects nearby.  “I’m passionate about providing families with the support and services they need and want to help people who are seeking a better way of life.”

To that end, the father of two makes sure everyone who calls or walks through the door gets immediate help. “People often have a moment of clarity in which they decide to seek help. But if they don’t get it right away, their motivation decreases,” he said. “And in inner cities, if families don’t get the services they need, it has a spillover effect that prevents parents from providing loving homes for their children.”

Client access to mental-health services has increased at Gandara by more than 20{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} in the past two years, and Davila has brought services to more than a dozen locations throughout the community.  He recently earned his doctorate of Education from the University of Hartford and is an adjunct professor of Social Work at Springfield College.

Davila believes education has afforded him the opportunity to “give back to my community and make a difference.”

Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Western New England University College of Pharmacy, age 39

Kam Capoccia says she has two passions, teaching and patient care. She is a clinical associate professor and residency program director for the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Western New England University (WNEU), but she is also the director (and the heart and soul) of the Consultation and Wellness Center at the Big Y on Cooley Street in Springfield, a unique program created in a partnership between the school and the corporation.

In both settings, she gets to teach. At WNEU, she’s educating students about everything from conducting blood-pressure screenings to how to listen to a heart. And at the consultation and wellness center, she’s educating patients about such matters as monitoring their blood sugar, controlling hypertension, and achieving weight loss.

Her many career pursuits — she also takes shifts in a Walgreens pharmacy on a per-diem basis — consume much of her time, but she also focuses on achieving work/life balance, making time for her family and especially her three children, Jacob, Melissa, and Jack.

The creators of the Big Y center describe it as a program featuring “the pharmacist as educator.” That’s a very accurate depiction, and one that brings Capoccia’s twin passions clearly into focus.

Program Director, Clinical & Support Options Inc., age 33

Allison Garriss decided in college that her heart just wasn’t into becoming a political consultant. So she changed her major to sociology and discovered the world of human services. Today, she works at Clinical & Support Options in Northampton, where she developed and now directs RECOVERe, a program that utilizes technology to help women stay sober during substance-abuse recovery.

“Basically, we provide support via text messaging and cell phones, web-based support, and videoconferencing support,” she said of the federally funded program.

“Part of what we do is working with people where they’re at,” she explained. “If someone can’t get to therapy on a regular basis, if someone can’t get to a group, when you remove those barriers to treatment and use technology to support them, you can have a major impact on people’s lives.”

Garriss has also devoted free time to a number of organizations, from the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society to the Women’s Fund of Western Mass. to the Northampton Post 28 American Legion baseball team.

“Working in human services is not just what I do to pay the bills; people are my passion. I’m not at all ignorant to the life challenges that keep people from being the best possible version of themselves,” Garriss said.

“Everyone,” she added, “deserves to have someone in their corner.”

Manager of Community Relations and Community Benefits, Baystate Health, age 32

It’s called the Pioneer Valley Community Health Needs Assessment Coalition.

That’s the name given to an initiative involving a number of area hospitals — Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Baystate Mary Lane Hospital, Baystate Medical Center, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Holyoke Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center, and Shriners Hospital for Children — that constitutes a creative response to state and federal directives requiring such facilities to compile comprehensive needs assessments every three years.

And it was Annamarie Golden who saw the need for the coalition and envisioned many benefits.

“Many hospitals do not have dedicated community-benefits staff or a lot of resources,” she said. “I looked at the region as a whole and said, ‘we have a lot of hospitals, and our service areas overlap, so let’s come together for the benefit of the community and the patients we serve and do a regional needs assessment.’”

Golden is also involved with the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield and is a supporter of the Western Mass. transgender and gay community.

As the mother of two, she’s also keenly aware of other mothers who are challenged with managing family and career.  She’s now working with Baystate HR and other employees create a support network to assist such individuals.

“There is a definite need for such a program,” she said. “There are many working mothers who need some support.”

Director of Franchise Support & Development and Field Consultant, Fitness Together; Owner, Elements Therapeutic Massage, age 34

As a certified fitness trainer with a nutrition license and an MBA in Finance and Economics from UMass Amherst, and an operator of two franchises for the Fitness Together chain in Eastern Mass., John Pantera helped position Fitness Together on Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 list in 2007, its Fastest Growing Franchises compilation in 2007 and 2008, and on America’s Top Global Franchises magazine’s list in 2007.

Wanting to aim higher, he sold his fitness franchises and opened an East Longmeadow franchise of Fitness Together’s sister operation, Elements Therapeutic Massage, in 2009. But the fitness-club side of the corporation wasn’t ready to see Pantera go.

A new position was created for him to direct the network of 54 locations (globally, there are 300) in New Hampshire and Massachusetts that deliver more than $20 million in annual revenues. Pantera now supports operators in their sales, marketing, customer service, and employee relations.

At Elements Therapeutic Massage, Pantera oversees 25 employees, 19 of whom are therapists, in one of the largest massage spas in the region.

He’s also an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship at Western New England University, his alma mater, and is involved with the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield and Rotary International.

President, CommunicateHealth Inc., age 34

Health information can be confusing — but Stacy Robison says it doesn’t have to be.

From that simple idea, Northampton-based CommunicateHealth was launched from her attic, and four years later, it boasts 25 employees, annual revenues that have increased tenfold, and a second office in Rockville, Md.

“When people are dealing with health issues, they’re often under a whole lot of stress, and it makes it really hard to understand information that’s already complicated,” she said.

Robison’s efforts range from writing and designing interactive health websites to writing fact sheets and creating mobile apps aimed at making health information easier to access.

Robison leveraged a public-health degree into a career working with various health agencies. “I started rewriting things, and pretty soon other people were sending me their fact sheets and brochures, asking if I could rewrite and translate them into plain language. It was obvious there was a huge need.”

Robison operates CommunicateHealth with her partner, Xanthi Scrimgeour, and has become something of a national speaker and writer on the issue of health literacy.

As insurance reform complicates the medical landscape, health leaders are beginning to recognize the importance of lessening confusion and anxiety.

“People need access to information they can understand,” she said, “and we’ve been able to capitalize on that.”

Clinical Director, Center for Human Development, age 37

When she was in college, Jenn Root took a psychology class and loved it; that piqued her interest in social work, which she eventually chose as her major.

In that field, she has sought opportunities to help some of society’s most challenged constituencies, working with various organizations to provide social services to disadvantaged children, adolescents, and families. She’s doing the same today as clinical director in the Center for Human Development’s Terri Thomas Girls Program, a detention unit for adolescent girls, many with a history of trauma.

“It’s not the kind of job where you see immediate results, and if you need immediate gratification to feel good about your work, it would be hard,” she continued, adding that her work is focused mainly on stabilizing these rough situations. “I like to think of it as planting a seed; you don’t really see it grow, but it does.”

Root is an avid runner, which helps her deal with the stress of the job, as her charges navigate what amounts to a small chapter in their lives.

“They don’t have to have the same life their parents did,” she explained. “They can blaze new trails and create their own future.”

Vice President and Director of Marketing & Public Relations, American Homecare Federation Inc., age 33

Mark Zatyrka was born with severe hemophilia, a bleeding disorder, and in addition to requiring constant blood infusions, he developed severe arthritis in several of his joints. Then, in the mid-’80s, he contracted HIV from a blood transfusion.

But Zatyrka found a career with purpose with the American Homecare Federation, a company that works exclusively with individuals and families living with bleeding disorders. He started out as a marketing associate and eventually climbed the ladder to his current leadership role.

Zatyrka says he feels fortunate to have a career that resonates so personally with him and that allows him to shape other people’s lives for the better, and he has gradually become a public advocate for hemophilia, HIV, and AIDS issues, partnering with a number of local organizations and regularly speaking to young people.

“The hemophilia community was devastated by HIV and AIDS back in the early ’80s; about 90{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of severe hemophiliacs contracted HIV,” he said. “I’m HIV-positive, and I do my best to help educate others in the community.”

That includes co-founding the AIDS kNOw More Project, an initiative of the AIDS Foundation of Western Mass. that trains young people to educate their peers about HIV and AIDS, about which there’s plenty of misinformation.

While a stigma still exists around HIV, Zatyrka mixes education and compassion in an effort to change perceptions — and lives.