Jacksonville, Fla.–Elizabeth “Liz” Means, vice president of community relations and community education at Shands Jacksonville, has been selected to participate in Health Forum’s 2003-2004 Creating Healthier Communities Fellowship program. Health Forum is an American Hospital Association company.
In its 11th year, the fellowship program offers an opportunity for healthcare professionals, business leaders and community change champions to focus on developing a new vision of health and quality of life for their community’s healthcare, while increasing the business performance of their organizations. Through a year-long intensive learning collaboration, fellows will attain a broader awareness of the systems and subsystems that affect the health populations, develop the core competencies to sustain complex change processes and sharpen their leadership skills to reshape the future of health.
Means began her career with Shands Jacksonville as an emergency room staff nurse in 1966 and has served in various leadership roles throughout the organization, including patient care administrator of the emergency department, assistant director of ambulatory care services and vice president of nursing services. In 1994, she was appointed vice president of community relations and community education, a new division created to respond to the needs of the community’s underserved.
Means is known throughout Jacksonville for her innovative approach to community medicine and health education, developing Shop Talk–The Touch of Life, a breast cancer awareness program specifically designed to reach African-American women. She was also responsible for Jacksonville’s first neighborhood subdivision primary care clinic, the Shands Jacksonville Wellness and Education Center at The Oaks at Durkeeville. Throughout her career, she has received several prestigious awards, including Florida’s first Unsung Hero in Healthcare Award in 2003, The Florida Times-Union 2002 Eve Award and the Gateway Girl Scouts 1988 Women of Distinction Award. She was the first African American to chair the National Conference for Community and Justice and currently chairs the Mayor’s Health Planning Council HIV/AIDS, Women, Adolescents and Children Committee.