RMC Health Board Meeting and Healthy School Leadership Retreat

It has been a fantastic week in Vail, Colorado! I feel incredibly fortunate to be on the Board of Directors of RMC Health, a non-profit that serves those working to improve the mental, physical, social and emotional health of children and youth. We had a great Board meeting that included both a business meeting and some strategic planning for the future. 

The conference kicked off with a fabulous keynote by Chip Health, author of Switch and Make it Stick. He talked about systems change and how we should focus our efforts on what is right in the work we do versus what is wrong and can’t be done. One of my favorite quotes from the keynote was, “What looks like resistance to change is often cluelessness.” To me, that means we have to continue to bring awareness and education to those that are making decisions in school health and education nationally. We can do a better job of helping people understand what we do and the value of what we do in concrete and specific ways. 

I attended a workshop presented by Amy Dyett, Amy Dillon and Andrea Pulskamp from the Colorado Education Initiative on a document that Cairn Guidance wrote (so fun to see people engaging with the document!). The paper, found here describes the resource as one to help make the case about the connection between health and student and staff success. 

On Friday, I presented my 8 Paradigm Shifts in Health Education workshop, a fun, interactive presentation that encourages educators to think differently and change their practices based on new evidence of enduring students understanding and skills development. It was a perfect introduction to Jamie Hurley and Jim Karas’ workshop after mine called Practice Makes Perfect! Developing Health Mastery Through the Use of Health Skills Models. RMC Health has developed toolkits that support teachers teaching decision making, goal setting and accessing information effectively! And, what mastery for these 3 skills looks like for each grade level span (PK-2, 3-5, MS and HS). Kudos to Jim and Jamie for their work!

Weeks prior to the Healthy School Leadership Retreat, an article was written on my keynote to energize those to stay for the closing session. I had the opportunity to address 400+ participants with my Do Something Extraordinary keynote address. Sharing my personal story each time is empowering and brings me back to the challenging and amazing memories of my journey. This keynote was exceptionally rewarding since I had a graphic illustrator behind me capturing my story while I spoke. 

It was a fantastic week in Vail and I feel energized to continue the work I’m so passionate about as a business owner, Board of Director, partner of schools and friend to many in Colorado!