November 2015 MC News

It’s Movember… Oh Man! A group of men at Mary’s Center are inviting all the males on staff to join them in growing their mustache as a way to mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Month this November.

Most of these mustaches are fake since it’s the beginning of the month… but wait and see them by the end of “Movember!” We invite all men to join them in this campaign. It’s simple: just start growing your mustache and make sure other men understand the importance of getting prostate screenings at the appropriate age, especially if there is a history of prostate cancer in their family.

Left to right: Alfred Wang (Finance), Dr. Christian Cornejo, Dr. Toll Elliott (CMO), Carlos Marroquin (HR Director), Jay Tsai (HR), and Joseph Lojo (Finance)

Dear Colleagues

Increasing access to health care was one of the major reasons why Mary’s Center was established, and I’m very proud of the work that our Navigators and In-Person-Assisters are doing to this end.

On November 1st, the team kicked off our third year of helping our community sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. It is heartwarming and inspiring to know that we’ve helped more than 2,000 people to enroll during the past two seasons, and that we’ll be helping thousands more to get access to preventive services that will help save lives, while saving health care dollars that can be reinvested into more services.

I am also very pleased and gratified by the recognitions Mary’s Center staff continue to receive. Among them are the Montgomery County Primary Care Coalition’s Mary Jackson Good Works Done Well Award given to Siomara Segovia, and the DC Primary Care Association’s Health Care Excellence Award given to Julien Guttman, and the continued support by the March of Dimes for the Centering Program, which is an innovative, cost-effective and successful group-learning method of providing care to our participants.

One of our goals as an organization is to become a

Center of Excellence for the care of families, and to

share those best practices with interested parties. As experts in

your roles, we count on your knowledge and support in this very

important strategic goal. Thank you for your willingness to help

spread the word and for delivering exemplary services. This

month, special thanks go to Lynne McIntyre for bringing

attention to our post-partum depression program in an

interview with CNN (Read the article here) and to Lyda

Vanegas for the peer-to-peer presentation on our Mobile App to

30 organizations at the NCLR (National Council of La Raza)

Fall Regional Convening in Philadelphia last week .

I must congratulate all of you once again for the creativity and

effort you put into the Halloween Decoration and Costume

Contest. I understand that some of our youngest (and even our

young-at-heart) participants joined in the fun! I love these

displays of Mary’s Center spirit and look forward to the

Thanksgiving Potluck and the Holiday Party.

May your lives be filled with much compassion and abundance

during this season.

Warmly,

Maria S. Gomez, President/CEO

C

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November 2015 2

Thank You for your Enthusiasm!

Every year we are amazed by the incredible creativity of our staff and the time and energy you devote to our Halloween tradition. Congratulations to all the winners (included in the email from HR). Here are more fantastic costumes, in case you missed them.

mpassion is the chief law of human existence – Fyodor Dostoevsky

November 2015 3

Honoring our Wonderful Staff

On October 27th, Georgia Nurse Manager Julien Guttman was presented with the Health Care Excellence Award at DC Primary Care Association’s Annual Meeting for exemplifying outstanding service and a commitment to improving the health of community members.

On October 16th, Walter Castillo (Senior Youth Dev. Worker), Miriam Garcia (Medical Assistant II), and Dr. Kristina Andersson (Pediatrician) were presented with the Employee of the Year Award at our annual gala, Noche Tropical. The nominations came from colleagues who’ve seen their commitment in their daily work.

During this past month, five staff members have been honored for their excellence in serving our community members.

On October 20th, the Montgomery County Primary Care Coalition presented Siomara Segovia, Clinical Nurse Coordinator at Flower, with the Mary Jackson Good Works Done Well Award for her impressive efforts to improve the health and well-being of Montgomery County’s most

Congratulations Centering Program! We have just received a notification letter that made us extremely happy and proud, announcing that the Centering Program at our Georgia location has been approved, again, as an official Centering site by the Centering Healthcare Institute. Kudos to the team for the outstanding job they are doing to

maintain high standards in this program which is very beneficial for our participants and staff!

Third ACA Open Enrollment Hits the Road

Our ACA Navigators and In-Person Assisters in DC and MD are in their busiest season, with the start of the third Open Enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.

Go Team!

If you are asked about enrollment, please know that:

We help anyone in the community at no cost.

For DC, enrollment takes place at Georgia and people don’t need to make an appointment. It’s on a walk-in basis.

For MD, enrollment takes place at the Adelphi location, and appointments are required (Call 301-422-5930).

If you have any question about the enrollment process, please contact Christian Narro (BHAP and DC Health Manager) at

202-545-2023.

Staff Open Enrollment-Save the Date

November 9 - November 20

There will be 3 health fairs where you can sign up for your benefits:

Monday, November 9- 10:00 am-2:00pm: Ontario (Kalorama Conf. Room & Kitchen)

Wednesday, November 11- 10:00 am-2:00pm: Adelphi (Conference Room 3A)

Thursday, November 12- 10:00 am-2:00pm: Georgia (Teen Room and Kitchen) For more information, contact Ana Toledo at X 7141 or atoledo@maryscenter.org.

Important: Even if you are not making any changes to your benefits, you will still need to fill out a new form for dental coverage, because Mary’s Center has changed its dental insurance provider.

November 2015 4

11 years of service

Karen Mazie

Lisa Luceno

9 years of service

Geiza I. Keller Souza

8 years of service

Gladis Canizales

Lisle Cole

Marthy Purcell

7 years of service

Luz Torres

6 years of service

Christian Cornejo

Kristina Andersson

5 years of service

Juan Munoz

Margaret Hume

4 years of service

Celibel Cortes

Nila Castro

2 years of service

Aimee Kelley

Joseph Lojo

Shauna Stupart

Shi “Jay” Tsai

1 year of service

Ana Toledo

Douglas Raspberry

Eulalia Gonzalez

Ivonne Diaz

Martin O'Hara

Yasmin Ventura

Please join us in congratulating the following staff members on their anniversary of working at Mary’s Center during the month of November.

Thank you for all your years of service.

Congratulations to Adelphi Nurse Manager Amparo Duff, who passed her exam and is now officially an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

Speaking about her motivation to pursue this certification: Amparo said: “I saw new moms coming in with their newborn babies and a bottle propped up against their little chins.

Chatting with them, I found out that most of them had never been counseled on the benefits of breastfeeding and that they would give up at the slightest discomfort on their first attempt to breastfeed.

Having a Midwifery background, and being aware of all the benefits of breastfeeding and having done lots of counseling before, I decided to go ahead and take the course and exam. As a lactation consultant, I am now better prepared to teach, support and encourage these moms in their journey and in this way help the community to have healthier babies and moms.”

It’s a reality! After several months of intense work with our web developers, we have finally launched our new website, and later this month, we’ll be launching our new mobile app (to be available on IPhone and Android), as well as our new intranet. Please take time to review them all and share your comments with Lyda Vanegas and Hazel Meda in Communications, and Shirley Arteaga in HR, especially if your department would like to add any information to your pages.

Note: When you are out of the office, you will have to log in through the Intranet (not through the website). In the meantime, you can log in from off-site using these links: https://mail.maryscenter.org https://citrix.maryscenter.org

Tailgate Party We love getting together and spending time with our colleagues outside of work. On Sunday October 25th, this group met at FedEx Field in Landover, MD, for a tailgate party before the Redskins/Tampa Bay Buccaneers game.

As always, our COO, David Tatro, delighted the group with his culinary skills, preparing delicious burgers for the attendees.

It was certainly a great gathering. Thank you to those who attended.

November 2015 5

Welcome New Team Members

Left to right:

Yolian Calvo, Nutritionist

Veronica Hernandez, Medical Assistant

Keith Hudson, Mental Health Community Support Worker

Jeanette Delgado, Mental Health Program Assistant

Ivana Valenzuela, Outreach and Registration Coordinator

Maria Castro Trujillo, Child Development Specialist and Quality Improvement Coach

Ana Palomino, Student Services Coordinator

2 Maria Krimhilde Morales, Prevention at Home Care Partner

3 Silvia Aragon, Finance Assistant

5 Carlos Quintanilla, Pre-School Teacher -Briya

6 Lidia Argueta-Diaz, MCO Panel Assistant

6 Rosa Martinez de Rivera, Early Childhood Teacher -Briya

8 Elvia Sorto, Medical Assistant II

9 Rene Guerrero Ruiz, Dental Assistant

9 Ruth Perez, Front Desk Receptionist

10 Donna Mejia-Zelaya,Front Desk Supervisor -Georgia

11 Hongjun Wang, Senior Staff Accountant

11 Magdalena Johnson, Special Edu. Coord./Teacher-Briya

11 Jose Palacios, Front Desk Receptionist

12 Angela Hernandez, Outreach Worker

13 Thomas H. Bowens, Facilities Worker

13 Yanira Mendoza, Medical Assistant

13 Celia Woo, Family Support Worker, Teen Program

15 Bill Bletzinger, Director of Finance -Briya

16 Eloisa Moreno, Family Assessment Worker

16 David Jr. Tatro, EMR Support Specialist & IT Help Desk

17 Emmanuel Ayers, OB/GYN

17 Jessica Coates, Dental Assistant

17 Kate Curtis, Certified Nurse Midwife

17 Negede Mengesha, Dental Assistant

18 Maiyu Fernandez, Life Cycle Health Educator

18 Mariana Ruiz, Community Support Worker

18 Wendy Sobey, Certified Nurse Midwife

19 Tania Torres, Front Desk Receptionist

20 Carlos Merchan, Home Visiting Program Manager

21 Ana Diaz, Referral Specialist

25 Silvia Arias, Early Childhood Manager -Briya

26 Magaly Choque, Medical Assistant II

27 Luz Valdivieso, Medical Assistant III

28 Samantha Feliz Moya, Medical Assistant

29 Doris Ayala-Reyes, Dental Assistant/Intern

30 Sarah Northey, Mental Health Therapist

30 Raquel Farah-Robinson, Student Serv. Coord./Teacher

Promotions Congratulations to the following colleagues who

were promoted in the past month:

Ruth Perez - Dental Assistant

Edna Brizuela - Dental Assistant

Mutiat Onigbanjo - Administrative Medical Director, Adelphi location

Jose Almanzar - Health Exchange Coordinator

Carlos Merchan - Home Visiting Program Manager

November

Congratulations also to Carlos Merchan (Home Visiting Program Manager) and his wife, Nury Sandoval (Briya Early Childhood Instructor) on the arrival of Salomon on October 17th.

Isn’t he adorable?