Community health centers and clinics are critical providers of health care access for uninsured and underserved populations and are central to advancing health equity. To improve care delivery, health centers require skillful, confident, and resilient leaders who are equipped to achieve systems change in health care.

To support such leadership development, Healthforce Center at UCSF is taking applications for the fifth cohort of the Cedars-Sinai Community Clinic Initiative: Managing to Leading program (M2L) through March 25. Cedars-Sinai's sponsorship of Managing to Leading covers most costs, including educational materials, lodging, and meals at seminars.

M2L is a transformative leadership development program for mid-level clinicians and non-clinical staff from eligible community health centers in Los Angeles. The program equips leaders with the knowledge, skills, resilience, and confidence to effectively manage change and improve health care in today’s complex and uncertain environment. M2L uses Healthforce Center’s trusted leadership curriculum, specifically tailored to the needs of Los Angeles’ community health centers. 

"Community health centers face unprecedented challenges while serving more people than ever before," said Dr. Sunita Mutha, director of Healthforce Center. "Programs like Managing to Leading serve as health care leadership accelerators. Time and again, we've seen that strong leaders create healthy communities."

Past participants have used Managing to Leading to solve a wide variety of issues at their organizations:

• How to develop an effective assessment and referral process of patients from local emergency departments to the health center, including a way to coordinate services and improve communications between clinics and emergency departments.
• How to collect information on food insecurity within patient populations to support an effective approach to address social determinant of health (SDoH).
• How to expand access to free food markets and cooking demonstrations to ensure that the highest number of patients and community members have access to fresh produce and healthy meals.
• How to reduce the number of patients paying sliding-scale fees who could potentially qualify for other coverage options, which may potentially give patients greater access to medical services while also improving health center revenue.

The program has helped participants build confidence, gain resilience, become more well-rounded, and better understand leadership. M2L also provides an important opportunity to practice new leadership skills and develop a supportive community of peers. Some direct quotes from alumni demonstrate the program’s value:

• “I am more effective as a leader because I now understand that leading people and programs doesn't mean managing them, it means understanding, listening, developing, encouraging, and working together with others in order to meet goals and visions.”
• “What I found amazing was how much I learned from the M2L cohort group within the limited time we had together; we came in as strangers and left with the feeling of a close-knit community.”
• “[I have an] increased understanding of myself has allowed me to provide the necessary support, flexibility, and education to my team, colleagues, community, and patients during this tumultuous and ever-changing time.”
• “In the last few months of crisis, I have learned that leadership skills can be learned and need to be practiced.”

To expand leadership pipelines, Healthforce Center encourages mid-level clinicians and non-clinical staff from community health centers in Los Angeles to consider applying. Please share this special opportunity with your networks and potential candidates! Applications are due by 5:00 PM Pacific on Friday, March 25.

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