Overview
The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) Foundation in October 2005 created a new initiative, The Massachusetts Institute for Community Health Leadership, to help build leadership capacity among health care organizations in the Commonwealth that serve the needs of low-income and uninsured residents.

The goal of the The Institute is to develop the next generation of leadership in Massachusetts to effectively address the future opportunities and challenges in community-based low-income and uninsured health care. The focus of The Institute is to help those with leadership potential increase their own personal impact, strengthen their effectiveness in their organization, and enhance the organization’s influence in the health care system.

The Institute offers a highly experiential curriculum, with classroom work, peer-to-peer exchanges and collaborative learning. During the nine-month program, the participants are expected to develop and implement a project utilizing the knowledge, skills, and leadership abilities gained through The Institute. The project, completed in teams, will address a health care issue that impacts uninsured and low-income people in Massachusetts.

This year's Institute began on October 23rd, and continues each month until June 2009. Three to four management electives are offered throughout the course of the program. Topics include Working with the Media; Behaviorally-based Interviewing Skills; Working with Conflict and the Basics of Finance.

Read more about the BCBSMA Foundation.

Purpose
The central purpose of this initiative is to develop skills for leaders within non-profit organizations serving the low-income and uninsured with the capacity to address the challenges facing future leaders, and create useful change. Its goal is to transform the participants’ perceptions of themselves as leaders, inspiring them to even higher levels of motivation, learning, steadfastness, and efficacy. Its primary focus is on developing leadership capacities and skills. In addition it builds a network of colleagues across the state who are dedicated to serving the health care needs of low income and uninsured.

The program will:

Inform and transform a participant's perception of self as leader in terms of:

• Increase personal awareness: e.g., vision, values, styles, strengths, biases, impact on others, self-purpose and role, etc.
• Expand one's conceptions of leadership and learn about how to develop and sustain themselves as leaders

Develop a participant's capacity to understand and apply a range of tools and skills for:

• Creating useful change in the health care arena:
  Understanding the environment
  Learning and planning for change
  Developing others as leaders by
  
• Valuing others (staff and volunteers)
  Fostering cultures of inclusion and diversity
  Giving and receiving feedback
  Developing responsibility and accountability
  
• Communicating powerfully with others
  Articulating a mission and motivating followers within the organization
  Persuading others and building consensus beyond organizational boundaries
  
• Working collaboratively with others
  Choosing when and how to engage others within the organization, with other non-profits, other sectors and the community
  Working with diverse stakeholders
  Designing and facilitating collaborative interventions

Curriculum and Programming
See our section on Curriculum.

Eligibility and Selection
See our section on how to Apply.

MICHL Faculty

David D. Chrislip
Principal of Skillful Means

Tawara D. Goode, MA
Director, National Center for Cultural Competence & Associate Director, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development

Ellen Harris
Thompson Island Outward Bound

Carla Kimball
Principal, RiverWays Enterprises

Cynthia Parker
Senior Associate Interaction Institute for Social Change

Thomas Rice
Chairman of the Board, Interaction Institute for Social Change

Robert Ryan
Senior Associate, Interaction Institute for Social Change

Michael McCormack
Program Director, Mass. Institute for Community Health Leadership

MICHL Advisory Council

The initiative was created with the help of over 20 CEO’s, Executive Directors, and Directors from community based organizations, community health centers, state and city government, and advocacy groups. The names and organizations who assisted the BCBSMA Foundation in developing the content and priorities for the Leadership Institute are:

• Valerie Bassett, Boston Public Health Commission
• Lisette Blondet, Cape Cod Healthcare
• Michael DeChiara, Community Partners, Inc.
• Debbie Flynn-Gonzalez, Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
• Ediss Gandelman, Community Care Alliance
• Susan Gardner, R.N. Little Home for the Wanderers, Inc.
• Dorcas Grigg-Saito, Paulette Renault-Caragianes, Lowell Community Health Center
• John Hess, Great Brook Valley Health Center, Inc.
• Chip Joffe-Halpern, Ecu-Health Care, Inc.
• Lyn Levy, SPAN
• Toni McGuire, Manet Community Health Center, Inc.
• Cynthia Mitchell, Sarah Kuh, Island Health, Inc.
• Laura Medrano, Metro West Latin American Center
• Ana Ortiz, Martha Eliot Health Center
• Celeste Reid Lee BCBSMA Foundation
• Donna Rivera, Greater Lawrence Family Health Center
• Randal Rucker, Family Service of Greater Boston
• Cathy Savoy, North Quabbin Community Coalition
• Margaret Soussloff, Franklin Community Action Corp.
• Duy Van Pham, Vietnamese-American Civic Center
• Ed Wang, Mass. Dept. of Mental Health