Community Service

I am extremely active within the world of health information management. Not only does it help advance the profession but it allows me to stay plugged into the rich and diverse HIM community. I attribute much of my success in HIM to my networking skills and kind disposition. This is part of why I love teaching so much. It's a great way to help build the next generation of HIM professionals and to impart upon them the skills necessary to be successful.

Washington State Health Information Management Association (WSHIMA)

Social Media Chair, 2013-2014

This volunteer position was focused on setting up and maintaining the social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) for the WSHIMA association. I engaged the membership at large to shift the conversation online to help grow the community and bring understanding regarding the profession to the public at large. I was also asked to help design the new association website. I interviewed the stakeholders and mapped out the new website structure which our vendor was able to create from the schematics supplied. You can view the new WSHIMA site at http://www.wshima.org.

Member of Education Committee, 2010-2011

This volunteer position was focused on assisting the Education Committee in selecting topics and potential speakers for WSHIMA workshops and webinars. This committee directly supports the WSHIMA Mission Statement which states:

The Washington State Health Information Management Association is a non-profit association of professionals engaged in health information management providing support to members and strengthening the industry and profession.

Tacoma Area Health Information Management Association (TAHIMA)

Webmaster, 2007-2019

This volunteer position is specific to updating and maintaining the TAHIMA website which is viewable at http://www.tahima.org.

President, 2007

This 3-year volunteer position began in 2006 as the President-Elect for TAHIMA where I eventually took over as President of the association in 2007. During this period, I was responsible for taking the organization out of the restaurant event room setting and back into healthcare. Additionally, I designed and launched the TAHIMA website bringing the association into the digital age. I helped locate speakers for monthly workshops and launched one of the first ICD-10 specific conferences flying in Michelle Bamford who works as the Regional Coordinator of Clinical Information Services with the Vancouver Island Health Authority. During the ICD-10-CA transition in April 2001, she acted as a BC provincial trainer in the acute care setting.