We caught up with CEO Ed Jimenez and asked him several questions for this edition of News+Notes. See how to submit your question at the bottom of the page!

I love my family. I grew up wanting to please my parents and wanting to achieve things in life that would make them proud. When you have the chance to receive your parents’ praise, there’s an energy, a warmth inside. When you have kids, you hope that you are paving the way for them to do better and have a better life than you had. When you see them hit milestones, you feel that warmth again.

I love, love, love hanging out with our employees, talking to them and finding out what’s going on. One of my favorite things is to walk around our hospitals and observe you in action. I am continually awed when I hear the genuine concern in your voice and the compassion you show in your interactions with patients and their loved ones. I observe how you readily stop to offer assistance, a smile and a kind word to put visitors at ease. Watching staff behind the scenes, I admire the ways you work together, support each other and collaborate to solve problems.

I love the intellectual stimulus you get around here. We work in a highly complicated place, training the next generation, taking great care of people, making discoveries and interfacing with some of the greatest universities in the country. You can’t find yourself without an opportunity to engage in some sort of healthy dialogue. Depending on your role, it could be some sort of superhuman smart dialogue or some stimulating and equally important discussion about creating safety, or making sure every family is connected with their medical team. The things we do and discuss can have monumental impact.

I’m inspired every day by what happens here. Periodically, the inspiration takes shape in front of me in the form of a person, activity or action. It happened recently when I was meeting with Environmental Services as a group and we got talking about all sorts of things. We had questions and answers and someone wanted to ask me about how their work fits in with the big picture. He started with a descriptor — “You know, I come to work every day wanting to help save a life” — and then he asked his question. That was inspirational when a housekeeper realizes that that’s what they’re doing — of all the things in their job description, they are here to help positively change or save a life. That applies to all of us, because we work for UF Health.