Congratulations Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis, M.D., President & CEO, Craig Hospital
Inclusive Leader Award Winner for Health & Wellness:
First Gen Role Model Shares Secrets to Scale Walls
When I think about the amazing number of blessings that have come my way over time, I find myself grateful beyond measure, shocked in many ways, and convinced that the world is abundant and provides openings for us if we stay attuned…coupled with some luck, hard work and a ton of angels to pave the way.
I say all of this because I firmly believe that by many accounts, I am not supposed to be here. But I need to start the story that predates my four siblings’ and my birth.
Let me share a bit about my dad. I have learned a little more about him and his story through Ancestry.com. Both of his parents died very young (a year apart from each other) when he was only 7 years old. The 1940 Census listed him as living with a relative (“nephew in law” is how he was designated). He enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1947, right after he graduated from high school. What a courageous and unusual act for an African American young man to do in 1947! He was 17 years old and lived in the Jim Crow South. But I believe that made all the difference for him and for his future family. He also died at 45 when I was in high school of a heart attack.
Until recently, I was the only one of my siblings to go to college, let alone pursue graduate school. I am so proud of my younger sister, who got her college degree at 60 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree. I have a brother who has struggled on and off with substance abuse and even homelessness. I don’t speak with my other brothers very often. These gulfs do not represent bad relationships, rather they are non-relationships. I think we all chose to go our separate ways as we aged and just drifted apart. I am currently the CEO and President of Craig Hospital, a nationally and globally recognized inpatient and outpatient neurorehabilitation and research hospital. Of all the blessings I have had in my life - and there are many - I could not have predicted that this is where I would serve. Life can throw you some crazy curve balls and you must be ready to catch them.
But back to the roads I have traveled, roads that would not have ordinarily even presented themselves to me as opportunity. I say that because there are barriers that present in the course of living, barriers that can serve as true roadblocks or dead ends, or barriers that propel us forward, as Randy Pausch stated in talking about brick walls in his beautiful “Last Lecture”. He said, “Brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.” Randy Pausch Quotes (Author of The Last Lecture, watch it here)
I guess I never saw a brick wall that I didn’t think I couldn’t climb or knock down!
So why am I astounded that I have been able to be part of such good work over a lifetime? Because there were a lot of brick walls that needed storming and some that I suspect those who might read this have also encountered. Experiences or events that either society has deemed “not yours to have or
experience” or ones that, sadly, take away our light and with it any belief that we have the potential to do and be good.
I am an African American woman of a certain age. I am the adult child of two alcoholics. I am also a child who grew up in a pretty dysfunctional home, despite three meals, clothes and a warm bed to rest upon…with a mother who was verbally, physically and emotionally abusive (something I came to terms with after five years of psychotherapy…well sort of came to terms, as those scars never fully heal). I am a child who was not protected from older male sexual predators. That was hard to admit and yet must be because it is part of not only my past, but I suspect some of your pasts as well.
When I take a moment to reflect on my early years, it is a blessing that I did okay. One might wonder to what I attribute my success. I would highlight a few things.
I liked school and was good at it. In fact, school was an escape. I was loved by my teachers and was encouraged by them as well, despite some tough years in an inner city black Catholic grade school because I talked like a white girl and was smart (the first few years of my life were spent on military bases, which were probably the most integrated segments of our society at the time, if not even now frankly!).
I always knew there was a great big world out there that I wanted to be part of, that there were adventures I just wanted to have. I don’t know where that yearning came from, but I think the 17 year old who went in search of something bigger - that is, my father - probably passed that gene down to me!
I liked being part of making systems better…being in the mix of things…and that often landed me in leadership positions. I felt compelled to give a speech at my 8th grade graduation after asking Sister William Anita if I could make some remarks (I think I asked her about a day before graduation!). In high school, I served on student council, a high school that was an hour from our home that I wanted to attend since having the chance to see their gym when I was in 6th grade. It was not diverse but the academics were strong and it was very elite—they had all the good stuff and I dreamt of the possibility of attending, so at the last minute I asked my 8th grade English teacher, who attended the school years before, if she would help me change my first choice selection for high school. And I was accepted! I was able to attend as a work-study student, and I worked the summers to make some money to help offset the balance of the tuition.
Working late one afternoon on student council matters, I had to go into the principal’s office, Sister Mary Clare, to copy something. I had a very brief conversation in front a scary and imposing brick wall (a lot of us were scared of her!).
Sister Mary Clare asked, “What are you going to do after high school?”
Me: “I am going to go to Johns Hopkins and I am going to be a doctor.”
Sister: “Aiming awfully high, aren’t you?”
Me: “I don’t think so.”
(Who says that to a 17 year old? Was it me? Was it that it was 1975 and women didn’t do that? Difficult to know.)
I completed my residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and was the Chief Resident. I was able to attend medical school as a National Health Services Corps scholar and had a payback obligation, which I completed after residency by providing care on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona for four years where I served as the Ob/Gyn department chief.
My husband, two little children and I moved to Denver in 1992, and after a brief stint at the University of Colorado as a faculty member, I took a job as a staff Ob/Gyn at Kaiser Permanente (KP). At KP, I had the opportunity to sit at more and more tables and participate in work that was focused on making our systems better, either within my specialty or more broadly. I was elected to the Medical Group Board of Directors after being encouraged to do so by Dr. Jack Cochran, who went on to become the Executive Medical Director of our Group. I was the second woman to chair the board in my final year of service and a few years later, Dr. Cochran selected me to serve on his leadership team. A couple of years later, Dr. Donna Lynne, who was the Health Plan President, asked me to join her executive team. I said a very tearful goodbye to patient care after 25 years and became the third or fourth physician in the company’s history to leave the Permanente Medical Group and join KP’s Health Plan leadership team.
I have served on too many boards to count! In a lot of ways, this is because we have significant work to do in filling our pipelines with more people of color and for nonprofit and corporate leaders to intentionally seek out the vast number of truly talented people of color who can serve their organizations beautifully. Recently, I was appointed to the Denver Branch of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, which makes little to no sense on the one hand and yet, I was asked to bring the health care voice to the table. I love this work and find the opportunity to think about how our day-to-day activities in business and in community affect the economy.
And now I find myself in this incredible role at Craig Hospital, serving a patient and family population who are among some of the most vulnerable yet differently abled (in many ways MORE abled) people who roam the earth. I feel beyond blessed to have this incredible opportunity-an opportunity, like many that have come into my life, that I neither saw coming nor sought.
I am reminded of Dr. Seuss’s book, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go!”
Breaking through barriers requires some intentional ways of being and doing. I will end this by sharing my top 10 list of what I believe it takes to scale or break through those brick walls. And that said, none of this is easy, but as Edison said, “Opportunity is missed by some people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
- Everyone lives with doubt. It is part of the human condition. Get comfortable with it and don’t let it paralyze you.
- The journey of living alongside doubt involves disappointment, rejection and hurt - and it is in those moments that the greatest growth might occur.
- You never know who is watching you. So show promise, show interest and mostly show up!
- The work over a life is to integrate the often scared, sometimes hurt but hope-filled child who lives in our souls with the adult we will become.
- You must have a loving entourage. Surround yourself with good people who will support you in ways big and small. And when the time comes, be part of the entourage for others.
- Sometimes you just have to do it, to risk it all, in order to grow and have a chance to do a bigger work. Don’t give away your shot!
- Strive to see yourself as the world sees you—warts and all, but mostly as the beautiful, potential-filled, gifted and talented person that you are!
- Do the work. Getting better takes practice, grit and determination, so put in the time to grow.
- And when you get knocked on your butt, which you will, rise strongly, as Brene Brown said. Real growth comes from some of the most challenging lived experiences. We are humbled in those moments and if we are willing to take the hard look in the mirror, own our stuff and lose the rest, new doors and vistas await!
- Tomorrow will take care of itself. Be wholly present today.
Meet Dr. Allen-Davis at the GlobalMindED Inclusive Leader Awards dinner June 22nd.
