Georgia

At the 2011 Union Delegates Conference, LMP senior VP Barb Grimm caught up with Dawn Bading, Georgia’s vice president of Human Resources. The two talked about transformational leadership in Georgia and the innovative ways in which the region is improving service and growing membership.

Déjà vu. Atlanta, Georgia…Paul is driving…it’s 100 degrees…and we’re lost…again. Did you know Atlanta has some of the worst traffic in the country, along with Washington, D.C. and almost anywhere in California? There’s one other problem. Every other street in this town is named Peachtree (Avenue, Boulevard, Circle, Street, Lane, Road… you get the picture). Did we mention it was hot? But we digress.

We were off again in March to the Peachtree State: Georgia. KP Georgia employees are some of the friendliest you’ll meet. First stop was “Coffee and Conversation” with Regional President Peter Andruszkiewicz (also known as “Peter A.”) and Dr. Rob Schreiner, the executive medical director of the region.

On to the Peach State in May. We wish that everyone could meet some of the great people we get the pleasure to encounter. Among them: Dawn Bading, vice president of human resources and her Coalition partner, National Coordinator Jenee Dixon, Peter Andruszkiewicz, president of the Georgia Region, Rob Schreiner, MD, executive medical director, Chief Operations Officer Sally Sidwell and Rick Brown of the United Food and Commercial Workers. UBT regional co-leads Frances Monteiro and Ally Neighbors have a clear understanding of the importance of frontline engagement.

So there we were, in Atlanta, going the wrong way on a four-lane highway. (Is this starting to sound familiar?) Not that it matters, but Paul was driving…and we had GPS!

After a dinner meeting (the steak special is  half-priced, if ordered by 6:00) with Jenee Dixon and Dawn Bading, the regional co-leads in charge of unit-based team implementation, things were looking up.