Latest news with #EconomicForumofAlbuquerque
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New nonprofit forms to confront health care, economic challenges in New Mexico
Jun. 5—A new nonprofit has emerged, intending to deliver measurable progress on New Mexico's most urgent and longstanding issues. Imagine New Mexico, led by Steve Moise, officially launched this week. The nonprofit will use a mix of data-based modeling and collaborations with other nonprofit organizations to improve results in the areas of health care, education, public safety, economic growth and poverty reduction, Moise said in an interview. "We will devote whatever time is necessary to making these changes work," said Moise, the former state investment officer with the New Mexico State Investment Council. "This is a multi-year initiative." The nonprofit is the result of Moise's commitment to improving on some of New Mexico's urgent issues, which he was made aware of, he said, about 40 years ago at an Economic Forum of Albuquerque meeting he attended as a young lawyer. He said the forum presentation highlighted how New Mexico ranked in various areas compared to other states, revealing the state's underperformance. "I became very concerned. I became upset. And I went home that night and said to (my late wife), 'I'm going to do what I can to make this state what it's capable of being. It may not be until I retire, but I hope I'll be able to address it.'" Moise said he began to research what other states and cities were doing "to help self-actualize them, make them all they were capable of being." "And I said, 'We're going to put together some of these ideas and make them right for New Mexico.'" The way Imagine New Mexico ultimately works is through a data-driven approach. The nonprofit's website, includes a dashboard — made in partnership with the University of New Mexico's Prevention Research Center — dedicated to tracking economic, education, crime and health care indicators. Imagine New Mexico will then collaborate with nonprofits in each of those areas and "will challenge them to collaborate to improve" those trackable results, Moise said. Imagine New Mexico will first focus on health care, aiming to form partnerships with nonprofits in that arena, Moise said. "We have a health care advisory group — a couple of physicians and some others that are advising us," Moise said. "And with all these people who know New Mexico so well, we'll be able to select the nonprofits, and then they can work on finding the right indicators." Imagine New Mexico's board consists of a distinguished group of residents from across the state, including board Vice President Mark Benak of the Sandia Foundation. The board also features former Economic Development Secretary Alicia Keyes, PGA Tour alum Notah Begay III, University of New Mexico Regent Christina Campos, and former State Treasurer Doug Brown. The nonprofit launched with funding from organizations including the Anchorum Health Foundation, The Frost Foundation, the Sandia Foundation and the Yates family-run PY Foundation.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
APS to roll out new career-readiness initiative at these three high schools
May 15—Beginning next school year, all freshmen at three Albuquerque Public Schools will have their courses tailored to a potential career path they select as the district implements a new program to prepare students for life after high school. The initiative will launch a concept called "Career Academies" at Manzano, Cibola and Highland high schools. APS plans to eventually expand the initiative to all the district's major high schools to help students decide on a focused career path. It is "working with business and industry in Albuquerque to determine career pathways," according to information on the district's website. The move comes as part of a broader effort to improve student outcomes and increase college readiness in the largest district in a state which regularly ranks last in the country for education. Some 30.2% of the population above 25 years old has a bachelor's degree or higher, according to U.S. Census data. The career academies were announced Wednesday morning by APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey to a ballroom full of business leaders and a handful of elected officials at an Economic Forum of Albuquerque event. "It's very hit-and-miss with our students who are engaged in their learning and our students who are disengaged, and really we need to look at how we can re-engage our students," Blakey said. The three schools were selected because they have "well-established school climates and cultures of support and collaboration," according to APS spokesperson Phill Casaus. "We will work with all our comprehensive high schools to look at workforce data trends and needs in Albuquerque and determine next steps for implementing the full academy model at their schools," Casaus wrote in a statement. "You can expect more schools to be incorporated in 2026-27, though at this early juncture it's premature to say which ones." In 2023, the APS Board of Education adopted four goals to improve student outcomes based on community feedback. One of those goals was post-secondary readiness, and Blakey believes the academies can help make that goal attainable. "Having a strategy like this on how to make school relevant for students, how they're learning perseverance, how they're learning to change their mindset of what it means to work hard, is really important," Blakey said. During Wednesday's event, one of the APS board members expressed her support for the initiative. "We have given a task to Gabriella (Blakey) as far as setting our goals, we've given her the task to now implement," said Courtney Jackson, vice president for the APS board and executive assistant for the Economic Forum of Albuquerque. "I think she recognizes that things weren't going very well, and for her to have made these strategic changes, structural changes within Albuquerque Public Schools so quickly has been a testament to her ability to rally the troops, to rally the community." United Way will partner with APS and serve as both a convening and fiscal partner in implementing the academies, according to Rodney Prunty, president and CEO of its North Central New Mexico chapter. He told the Journal on Wednesday afternoon that the organization is aiming to raise $500,000 over the next five years to get the initiative started. "Every single student will have an opportunity to engage in this particular model," Prunty said to the room of business leaders. "So it's not specific to a group of students, but for every single student at every single high school."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Our focus is on us': Presbyterian CEO says there are no updates on potential mergers
Mar. 27—Presbyterian Healthcare Services' chief executive avoided directly addressing merger speculation at an Albuquerque business meeting Wednesday, following the collapse of a major deal two years ago. "No updates. ... Our focus is on us. Our focus is on New Mexico. Our focus is on 2025," Dr. Rishi Sikka, the Presbyterian CEO, told a group of business leaders at the Economic Forum of Albuquerque. The response follows a blown deal between Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Iowa-based UnityPoint Health — which disintegrated in 2023 for reasons the state's largest health system has not disclosed. Presbyterian executives had promoted the deal as a cost-cutting and efficiency-improving move that would've created an $11 billion conglomerate. It also comes as hospital mergers have grown. A report from the health care consulting firm Kaufman Hall noted 72 U.S. hospital mergers took place in 2024 — an increase from the previous two years, in part stimulated by a troubled medical industry. The report found that nearly one in three mergers involved a distressed party operating with negative budgets. The Legislature also approved a bill requiring a review of "proposed transactions that involve mergers, acquisitions or other actions that change control of a hospital or certain health care provider organizations," according to an analysis from the Health Care Authority. Its the second session in a row lawmakers have strengthened merger oversight. Sikka focused his hourlong speech on Presbyterian's future. In doing so, he acknowledged volatility at the federal level — which has created uncertainty for all health systems, including Presbyterian. Sikka's speech did not specify any issues in particular — like pending cuts to federal Medicaid dollars, threats to medical research funding or the U.S. Health and Human Services Department embrace of vaccine skeptics to head key positions — but said the ever-changing shifts are a concern. "There's so many of those dynamics at the federal level that affect health care in states and in local communities," Sikka said. But in looking to the future, Sikka described three goals for 2025: delivering safe, high-quality, compassionate and equitable care; keeping patients and members healthy; and engaging and retaining a talented team. To the first point, Sikka highlighted Presbyterian's Healthcare Advanced Learning Lab. The $6 million facility includes four inpatient rooms, an emergency room, a clinical room, an apartment meant to simulate how first responders would react to a home call and a post-operation room. "This is the kind of environment where you train folks to be able to deliver safe and high-quality care so they can perfect it," Sikka said. Sikka, who took over the leadership role at Presbyterian in October 2024, also highlighted Presbyterian's Food Farmacy, a referral-based food pantry for patients deemed food insecure. Based on a high demand for services, Sikka said that Presbyterian planned to expand the program, although he did not provide specifics on the plan. "We couldn't accomplish any of this without having an incredible, incredible workforce," Sikka said. "We have challenges in our state with recruitment, and it's not just a challenge for New Mexico, it's a challenge for the country." Sikka pointed out that the Health Resources and Services Administration, under the purview of the federal Department of Health, designates 32 of New Mexico's 33 counties as health care provider shortage areas. Moreover, federal data shows that New Mexico is short about 7,000 registered nurses and 150 primary care physicians. "The workforce shortage problem is not simply a New Mexico problem. We are competing with states all across the country for talent," Sikka said. At the audience's request, Sikka addressed some of the legislative proposals aimed at alleviating the shortage, including a failed bill that would've capped medical malpractice settlements. Supporters of the measure said it would help to improve New Mexico's provider deficit, while opponents said it would make it harder for patients to sue after botched procedures. "I've seen both sides. As an emergency medicine physician and how that experience kind of weighs on you, and I've also seen it as a son and as a husband, where I saw things happen in care that I didn't think were very cool," Sikka said. Sikka didn't take a side but added that Presbyterian is committed to hiring more physicians. He also said Presbyterian had granted an additional week of paid time off to all staff as a means of improving retention. In closing, Sikka repeated a mantra from Marion K. Van Devanter, one of Presbyterian's founders: If we can help, we should. "That is still her heartbeat," Sikka said. "It is still a part of the pulse of our organization, and that pulse is the pulse that we are going to raise up and have even louder and stronger in 2025 and as we go forward."
