How should values guide UNTHSC?
Organizations constantly evolve, and navigating these changes is easier when the organization has a strong mission, vision and values. Surveys show that almost all of us know and understand the Health Science Center’s mission (to improve the health and quality of life for the people of Texas and beyond through excellence in education, research, clinical care, community engagement and to provide national leadership in primary care) and vision (to become a top-10 health science center). Now we’re turning the conversation toward our values.

What do the Health Science Center’s values — compassion, excellence, innovation, integrity, pride and teamwork — mean to you? Help the Communications Team’s Values Task Force develop common, institution-wide definitions of these. Take a survey, comment on the Values Blog, or talk to a Values Task Force member before Aug. 7 to share your thoughts on how we as individuals and the institution as a whole can display these values.

You are invited to join this conversation by:

• Clicking on the Values Web site and participating in an anonymous survey. A link to the Web site is also located on the UNTHSC Intranet, just below the weather box.
• Sharing your views and inviting comments from others on the Values Blog.  We will add two values per week for discussion on the blog.
• Inviting a member of the Values Task Force to attend a regularly scheduled meeting in your department to obtain face-to-face feedback.

The Values Task Force members will summarize the responses and present their findings to the Communications Team for comment, then to the Administrative Thinking Council for consideration. Ultimately, the findings will go to the Executive Team – then be shared across the institution.

How we interpret these values will shape how we make decisions of all kinds – hiring and performance evaluations, priorities, resource allocation and future strategy.  Help determine the right path by defining what our values mean and the actions they require of us.

Here are the Task Force members and the values feedback they will be summarizing in two-person teams:

Compassion
Diane Bradley, School of Public Health
Pat Baker, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Excellence
Craig Elam, Library
Carol Knisley, Osteopathic Research Center

Innovation
Cynthia Lee, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
Terry Morgan, Facilities

Integrity
Susan Ross, Finance & Administration
Jim Sims, Safety Office

Pride
Trisha Van Duser, Student Affairs
Michelle West, Institutional Advancement

Teamwork
Jackie Williams, Health Institutes of Texas
Patrice Williams, Legal