Leadership

By M.E. Avila On August 28, 2026, a severe storm moved through San Antonio, bringing destructive winds, heavy rain, flooding, downed trees and power lines, and widespread power outages. More than 100,000 CPS Energy customers lost electricity at the height of the event. Among the hardest hit areas was ZIP code 78207 on San Antonio's Westside, where more than 15,000 customers were reportedly affected. In the hours and days that followed, families needed electricity, food, water

NATIONAL COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER AWARENESS WEEK Why Community Health Workers Deserve More Than Recognition By M.E. Avila Trust is not a soft outcome of community health work. It is the infrastructure that makes every other outcome possible. Every year, National Community Health Worker Awareness Week gives institutions an opportunity to celebrate the people who connect communities to health care, public health, social services, emergency response, and other systems that shap

By M.E. Avila Organizations are designed around boundaries. Departments have defined responsibilities, professions develop specialized expertise, funding is attached to specific outcomes, and accountability follows established structures. These boundaries are necessary. They help organizations determine who is responsible for what and create systems for measuring whether the work is being done. Communities, however, are not nearly as orderly. A housing problem can quickly bec

By M. E. Avila Integrity is often discussed as a personal characteristic. We admire people who tell the truth, keep their promises, and do the right thing when no one is watching. Yet leadership demands something deeper. Integrity is not simply about honesty. It is about alignment. It is the ongoing commitment to ensure that what we believe, what we say, and what we do remain consistent over time. There was a time when a person's word carried the weight of a signed contract.

By M.E. Avila Every organization owns a mirror. The question is whether it is willing to look into it. Long before strategic plans, performance dashboards, quality improvement frameworks, and organizational assessments, Indigenous civilizations recognized that effective leadership required more than knowledge or authority. It required reflection. Among the Aztecs, polished obsidian mirrors carried profound symbolic meaning. Obsidian, a volcanic glass formed through intense he

By M.E. Avila One of the greatest lessons I learned as a Culture of Health Leadership Institute (CoHLI) Fellow was that health equity is never just about healthcare. It is about relationships. It is about power. It is about trust. Most importantly, it is about whether our institutions are willing to hold themselves to the same standards they expect from the communities they serve. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my career. Whether I have been working alongside commu