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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

JESSICA GRIFFITHOffice Manager | HFMA Colorado Chapter

I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Jessica Griffith, Office Manager for the Colorado HFMA Chapter, for this edition of PEAKS & PLAINS. The first thing that struck me about Jessica was the sense of purpose she has in doing her very diverse job for the volunteers, sponsors and members of the Colorado Chapter. As a volunteer member myself, I was especially appreciative to hear Jessica’s remarks regarding wanting to provide exceptional support to everyone involved in the HFMA’s activities and services.

Jessica’s largest responsibility is organization and logistics for all of the conferences that are hosted by HFMA each year. Those tasks include venue selection, registration management, vendor management, catering, conference materials, speaker coordination and hotel accommodations.

This year the schedule of events began with the Great Fall Rural Retreat in Glenwood Springs and followed in October by the Medicare Bootcamp (a webinar series this year), the Compliance Conference in February, the Revenue Cycle Summit in March, and the Annual Conference in April. There are also three Rural Road Shows coming up during the year. Jessica manages sponsor activity and benefits of the conferences, as well as the sponsorships of the Chapter as a whole.

In addition to the conference events, Jessica also supports the Women In Leadership meetings (typically 2 per year). The upcoming Women in Leadership event in October is a half-day event with keynote speaker, workshop sessions, and a networking gathering.

The second most time-consuming part of Jessica’s Office Manager position is Marketing and Communications for the chapter. That responsibility includes the development of brochures, creation of invitations, all graphic design, the final editing and formatting of the PEAKS & PLAINS newsletter, and all email communications.

Jessica also tracks accounts receivable and works closely with Treasurer Scott Gunter.

When I asked Jessica how she came to be Office Manager for the HFMA she told me a very short story. After graduating from Kansas State University in 2005 with a degree in Secondary Education, Jessica move to Denver that summer and began working for Heery International (Heery) as a Project Assistant. Heery is an architectural design and project management firm for healthcare facilities. At the completion of her first project in 2007, Jessica was able to transition into a marketing role at Heery. In 2012 she was promoted to Regional Marketing Coordinator, where she remained full-time until starting a part-time marketing consultant position with the Colorado HFMA in 2013. At that point, Jessica was a part-time contractor for both organizations.

In 2014 Jessica began full-time employment with HFMA and then took over for the retiring Hal Prink as Office Manager in 2015.

by Brian Mitchell

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Jessica’s most challenging issue centered around providing value to the degree that her vision drives her. The first thing that she talked about was the challenge of making sure attendance is high at events and also finding the right balance of value for both attendees and sponsors. With that comes the usual challenge of keeping as many geographically dispersed people as happy as possible with the proximity of events. Colorado being such a large land mass state makes it difficult to maintain that balance.

Jessica’s passion for her position is reflected when she provides her perspective on the value of HFMA in the following statements. “I believe that HFMA is a treasured resource to members for both education and networking, but it has to be used for members to know how valuable it is! I also believe that HFMA provides sponsors with the opportunity to work side by side with the provider community. They also have exposure to a significant number of providers as part of the Colorado HFMA and beyond.”

Furthermore, evidence of Jessica’s inspiration for doing her work with compassion and excellence comes from her words: “I love supporting all the volunteers who are so dedicated and who give of their time and are passionate about the industry. I always want to know that I am doing work that is in service to other people. Everything that I do I want to do to the best of my ability. I want to be in support of the mission and goals of the organization and the membership, and provide what volunteers, sponsors, and members need.”

Jessica is married to Dustin, a former Anaheim Angel baseball pitcher. They will celebrate their eleventh wedding anniversary this November.

They have three children: Emerson who is five years old; Marlowe who is three years old and Ike who is one. Word has it that Dad is hoping that Ike will be a “lefty” so that he can follow in his footsteps as a pitcher and have the advantage of being left-handed.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT (continued)

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Jessica’s family enjoys camping, boating and spending time with their large extended family and immediate family, who all now reside in Colorado.

And as if all of this doesn’t keep Jessica busy enough, she is also a very active runner, having completed two half marathons, a ten-mile race and a seven-mile leg of the Colfax Marathon Relay. She is currently training to run the full Fort Collins Marathon in May of 2017.

When asked what advice she could provide others with similar job responsibilities as she has, Jessica’s response was “Learn to juggle and enjoy it! Love and fear the deadline! Set goals and deadlines to manage it all and be a good calendar manager. And most important, like helping others, and be OK with being behind the scenes and not in the limelight!”

Isn’t it great to know that we have an Office Manager with such a terrific attitude and rational perspective!

Interview conducted by:

BRIAN MITCHELL, HFMA Volunteer

Chief Executive Officer and Founder220 Cornerstone Business Consulting(o) 720.724.7453brian.mitchell@220cornerstone.com