Marrying Wellness and Work

Dr. Danita Johnson Hughes shares why she remains committed to health and wellness—her own and her staff’s—as a CEO.   www.waldenu.edu Posted on May 23, 2016

When Dr. Danita Johnson Hughes joined Edgewater Systems in Gary, Indiana, it needed a leader. The behavioral health facility was on the verge of closing its doors. Thanks in part to her leadership as its CEO, within a year the organization was back on track, fully licensed and newly accredited.

Dr. Hughes, who earned her PhD in Human Services (now PhD in Human and Social Services) in 2002, is now working to expand the organization in response to the community’s need for additional services. Edgewater Systems plans to formalize a partnership with a primary healthcare practice to bring practitioners into its locations and begin staffing primary care locations with mental health professionals. Edgewater Systems is also expanding by building new locations across Indiana. “We’re always trying to be responsive to community needs,” she explains. “Part of that is consistently paying attention to national trends, like the push for integrated healthcare.”

Dr. Hughes readily admits she could not have reached this point of success without an extraordinarily tight-knit team to support the organization at every level. How did they do it? By focusing on wellness and morale in the team’s regular interactions. Here, she shares a few ideas to build morale at any workplace:….please click here for the full article.