Lisa J Lowe-Hall, 40
Executive Director of the Women’s Birth and Wellness Center
What drew you to the Women’s Birth and Wellness Center, where you’re the new executive director?
In 2019, my family had a really challenging year. We ended up tragically losing three family members in the run of seven months between April and the week of Thanksgiving, and I ended up leaving the job that I was in shortly after that, in early December. And I just took the end of the year and the first of 2020 to really do some soul-searching and think about my life, what I’m passionate about and what led me to become a healthcare administrator to start with.
It led me back to my passion for leading Women’s and Children’s Services. This role came up for the Women’s Birth and Wellness Center. As I just started to research the organization, the work that they were doing really aligned with why I chose to be a healthcare administrator.
And what kind of care does the WBWC offer?
We offer comprehensive primary care. We offer, of course, maternal lactation care. We also offer teen-specific care, so the teen population is a population that we love and offer are for, as well as transgender and nonbinary care.
What challenges are families facing during the pandemic, in regards to maternal care?
When you think about that time of pregnancy, it’s family-centered and not just patient-centered. So when patients are coming in for check-ups, we’re limiting the amount of people that can come in and people are wearing masks and really working hard on our end to keep them safe. It’s an evolving learning process. We really continue to focus on this being an exciting time of transition for these families and moms and keep it positive.
But what makes the midwifery model of care different and special is that it is time-intensive. The time-intensive relationship makes the difference and positively impacts health outcomes. This is the one thing that hasn’t changed as a result of COVID-19. Even in the midst of a pandemic, we are in relationship with our patients.
The pandemic has also highlighted inequities, especially racial ones, in the healthcare system. Is that a focus for WBWC right now?
It’s at the forefront of what we do. We recognize the need for diversity in the organization, and we’re definitely looking to diversify our midwife team—all of our staffing, but definitely within our midwife team. We’re actually working on our marketing and our website because it’s not as transparent to all people exactly what we do and what we offer. We want to remove those barriers to access and care.
What are you most excited about with this role?
I am most excited to grow an organization that provides high-quality care for some of our most vulnerable populations. The thing that I’m really focusing on right now is awareness about our organization. We’re told that we’re the best-kept secret. People that do know about us, just because of our title, think that we’re only a birth center. So we’re trying to get the word out that we are a wellness center as well and do have a comprehensive primary care program and are inclusive of all and are working hard to diversify our organization.
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