In this edition, we highlight seven of our colleagues who served in the U.S. Armed Forces. While we don’t have enough pages to profile all of the military veterans among us here at UF Health, this edition is our way of honoring each of them.

I’ve always been extremely grateful to those who serve and have served in our military. These individuals are incredibly brave.

We spend much of our lives doing everything in our power to stay out of harm’s way. We wear our seat belts, apply sunscreen, lock doors, visit physicians and install smoke detectors. For those of us who are parents or pet owners … don’t even get us started.

But here you have people who consciously raise their risk of encountering harm by joining the military and serving our country. We all hope that our military personnel stay safe, but none of us can predict the future and serving is a risk those who join the military are courageously willing to take. Thanks to those willing to protect us, our nation has a volunteer-based military.

For military veterans, health care work seems like a natural fit, as they are inclined to serve others. The skills and experience they acquired during their service add another dimension to our workforce at UF Health. We are very grateful to have them as colleagues.

Beginning on page 6, you’ll learn more about the veterans we highlighted in this edition — where they were stationed the longest, what branch they served in and how their experiences have helped them at UF Health. You’ve probably passed by one of them, or even worked with them, and weren’t aware of their service to our country. They deserve our appreciation.

Also in this edition, we look at several teams working hard behind the scenes to make our organization great, including the UF Health Contact Center and the Patient Experience department’s Language Access Services team. We continue our Q&A feature with our CEO Ed Jimenez on the following page, and I encourage you to email me a question for him to be considered for a future edition (taylt@shands.ufl.edu). Finally, exciting improvements are on the way for News&Notes — read about them on page 20.

Todd Taylor
News&Notes Editor
UF Health Communications