Women Who Mean Business: Diana Shaw

April 17, 2018

PACIFIC BUSINESS NEWS

MARCH 16, 2018

Diana Shaw

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

LANAI COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

She holds three advanced degrees in public health and business, and transformed the Lanai Community Health Center from a small plantation house into a state-of-the art facility.

If you could meet one woman business leader — from any industry, time or place — for coffee, who would it be? Queen Liliuokalani. I know that she might not be considered a typical business leader, but she was responsible for running the Hawaiian Kingdom — and that takes business acumen, along with many other skills. I would want to talk with her to discuss unintended consequences of decisions made by her and other leaders on her team; knowing what she knows now, would she have made different decisions. So often, as a leader, we make decisions and then have to deal with their unintended consequences. Often that is even more challenging than the original decision-making process. Certainly, one can learn from those experiences, and use that education to make better decisions in the future — looking with greater care at what outcomes downstream might result from the original decision.

What is the proudest moment of your career, so far? Establishing Lanai Community Health Center in 2008, identifying funding for and building our new facility in 2015, providing holistic, quality care that serves as a model for other rural, remote communities, and working with our team of passionate, dedicated staff — a mouthful for sure, but all connected. Standing at the blessing and dedication of our new facility is a moment I will never forget; however, of as great a moment is earlier this year when all the staff pulled together to deliver a photographic message to Washington, D.C., about the importance of the care we provide and the need to fund the budget for community health centers. All staff wore red and made signs of why they were wearing red, joining with other CHCs across the nation to deliver this critically important message. Congress passed the budget with full CHC funding two days later! Chicken skin!

What is one thing that most people don’t know about you? I think most know me to be a relatively risk-adverse person; however, before moving to Hawaii, my husband and I participated for a number of years in Sports Car Club of America Auto Crossing (a “safer” form of auto racing, where one car competes for time on a closed course). It was fun and the competition was totally different from my usual daily activities. We even competed twice at the nationals, held annually in Topeka, Kansas (where I also learned how to bake cookies in a microwave in a friend’s motorhome).

What is the most difficult thing you’ve had to do? Wait. My husband, Mike, has had two open heart surgeries. Waiting for his surgery to end, and know that he was going to be OK, was definitely the most difficult thing I have had to do.

How do you start your day? It is sad to say that the first thing I do, while still lying in bed, is look through email on my phone and respond to as many as I can. The next thing is to exercise, at least three days a week, by walking with my husband for two to five miles, depending upon the route.

What is your least favorite thing to do, and how do you deal with it? Get up early! I hate it! I guess I deal with it by delaying it (see answer to my question above).

This article appeared in Pacific Business News on March 16, 2018 on page B32. It has been reprinted by Pacific Business News