(Part 2 of 2) We continue our discussion with Candace Williams to learn more about how BRG leadership impacted her and what her plans are for the future.
Ashleigh Hargrave 00:05
Welcome to Mosaic, your Novant Health podcast for diversity, inclusion and equity. You'll learn more about the mosaic of similarities and differences that make us stronger, and how health equity benefits us all. Piece by piece. We're telling the stories of the beautiful mosaic of Novant Health.
Becky Knight 00:25
Welcome to part two of our conversation with Candace Williams, immediate past co-leader of our award winning women's business resource group at Novant Health. In part one, we focused on the work that has garnered some accolades, and on this episode, we are going to focus on how BRG leadership has impacted Candace. Candace, leading such a large BRG, even one with a strong co leader, executive sponsor and committee leaders -- It takes a lot of time and energy. With so many groups you could volunteer to serve, why did you choose to be a BRG leader?
Candace Williams 00:58
To your point, it is a growth opportunity, I saw it as that I saw. It as an opportunity to meet new people in the organization to grow my own skills. And really for the women's BRG, I've always been, I shouldn't say always, but like, as long as I can remember for many years, very personally passionate about helping people grow developing people, and it's particularly women. So the opportunity to help my colleagues to grow, to be able to identify different people to come in and to really pour into them with information and knowledge and learning to be able to plan and strategize how you know, what is this year look like? Are we focusing on mental health? Are we focusing on domestic violence and making sure that women are taking care of themselves is an international women's day and we get to collaborate with other BRG to do something fabulous and honor the contributions that women have made. It just has been, for me, it was just this opportunity to use a lot of the skills that I get to use at work, but maybe in a very different way to be able to be creative and working on our videos that we submitted with our application to be able to like I said, bring in these amazing speakers. So I just really saw it as a way to really sort of feed my passion like I care about it. It's exciting to hear people grow. It's exciting when people reach out to us and say that a speaker impacted them or something that we said impacted them. It's just amazing. So that it was it was for both my personal and professional development personally, I was fed my soul was fed as a result of it, it fed me. And then I also had an opportunity to feed others and the opportunity to learn from more amazing people because the big leader, you're able to connect with all these other amazing leaders across the organization. It's just fabulous. I mean, I really had so much it was like really hard to let go. But I think part of that is making room for someone else. Like I would have happily continued to do this for years to come. But they're amazing people who also want any that same opportunity.
Becky Knight 03:21
I would love to learn what is next for you.
Candace Williams 03:24
So outside of work, I'll say within Novant Health, I still will be very active with the BRG. I'm a member of the Women's BRG and the African American BRG still able to support the new chairs with finding speakers and just anything I can do to help them as they transition. So I'll remain active there and love that and be able to step up with African American BRG because when I took on the chair role women's BRG, I had to step back so I'm so I'm excited about continuing to support the BRGs. Outside of work, I'm very active. I'm in my last year as PTO President, my youngest son is a senior in high school. And so I've been President for probably six years and I've always been on the board of the PTO or PTA and some call it at their schools. I'm in my last year of Jack and Jill of America, which is a an organization of historically black Organization of Women, moms. And so it's really a mother organization, we support our kids and I've been active in that. And so I'm I'm able to kind of step back from that. I'm a sustainer and Junior League of Charlotte, and then recently joined, became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which is a historically black sorority, and we strive to be of service to all mankind. And so with that, I know I'll be able to continue to give back to the community. And one of the things that being a big leader did and I said I was passionate about women and growth and development, but it really also sort of sparked this desire in me to do more and what does it look like so capacity for you? I shared that I spoke with the local university. I've actually got two speaking engagements in queue over the next couple of months. And I'm really excited about and really hope to do more of that because I love actually enjoy public speaking and enjoy sharing things that help feed women and help us to grow. I recently had an opportunity to share on the women's BRG call for the first time because all the years it was sort of like I was always scheduling other people and thought, oh, wait, what if I shared you know and so Jill and mothering allow me to share and actually Candace Whitfield who shared with me is going to be coming back and sharing soon as well. And then I, I've started coaching, so I've got some clients that I'm coaching because really, like I said, it's like pouring into women and the BRG really helped me to kind of unlock that gift, that desire that was in me and what does it look like for me to serve and give back to other women?
Becky Knight 05:57
Well, thank you. I am very thankful just personally for what the BRG has done for me as a team member at Novant Health and also in my role as a BRG administrative coordinator. Your leadership of the women's BRG, in your partnership on so many things has really raised the level for all of our BRGs. And so I thank you for what you've done the last few years and I'm excited for what lies ahead for you. So thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate it.
Candace Williams 06:27
Thank you, but Becky, before we go, I want to thank you too. You are an amazing support. As a BRG coordinator you are they're all extremely supportive. Novant Health didn't just come to the big game like this isn't something new. It's not a result of anything that just happened in culture. This has been going off for years, we've got amazing support all the way across the organization. It's clear that BRGs are valued at Novant Health and you're one of the reasons that we are also successful. So thank you
Ashleigh Hargrave 06:59
Thanks for listening to mosaic your podcast for diversity, inclusion and equity and Novant Health. Stay tuned for our next exciting episode.
