The public health community is one built with innovation and heart. I knew this already, but it was, once again, reiterated to me after attending a recent WIC industry conference.
All the products offered at CDP have a specialized focus on innovation in public health, with a specialized focus on the WIC program. While I am not on the front lines to help the needy, I can assist with the creation of tools that may make their lives easier.
During the conference, I spent time with a client who entrusted me to manage their project in 2001, an experience that wound up shaping my future career path. The connections I have made since then significantly impacted my adult life in ways I never imagined when I started my career fresh out of college. It is amazing to see the same faces devoted to this community after more than 20 years, along with the new crop of leaders growing up beside them.
While watching my colleagues present innovative and exciting content to the WIC community, I realized how lucky I am to work at CDP. Our corporate culture is based on genuine partnerships, both with our clients and across our teams. We encourage our staff members to explore new ideas and creatively tackle challenges. We are focused on long term outcomes and value meaningful relationships. While discipline and focus are important for our long-term goals and predictable success, we also emphasize awareness, empowerment, agility to adjust quickly and confidently, seizing opportunities, and growth.
It seems whenever we reflect on our jobs, we tend to focus on the challenges and barriers. While these will always exist, I find it important to remember why I continue doing the work I love for a company I believe in. Nothing will go right all the time, but maintaining that focus makes the challenges more bearable and the successes—both personal and those for CDP—that much sweeter. We are passionate about what we do and who we serve, and that’s what makes it all so rewarding in the end.