A native of Pennsylvania, Tom McGuiness and his family moved to Southern California in the late 1970’s when he became part of Dr. William Glasser’s institute, Educator Training Center. Tom applied Glasser’s concepts with colleagues at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, CA. He subsequently became Senior Vice President for Community Outreach at Citrus Valley Health Partners.

Through his leadership, public and private service providers came together with strengthened relationships and increased service to the community. Programs such as ECHO - Every Child’s Healthy Option, and GEM - Get Enrollment Moving were initiated to ensure that all children and families in the East San Gabriel Valley had access to support for health needs.

The region was recognized for the highest percentage of enrollment of eligible families in public programs through education efforts spearheaded through Tom’s leadership. When Tom heard that the West Covina Clinic was closing, he asked Queen of Valley Hospital for funds to keep the clinic open that serves low-income patients. His commitment made it possible to rebuild the East Valley Community Health Center, ensuring treatment for the poor and cost free medication for the homeless.

The Institute for Community Leadership, a nonprofit collaborative designed to train the trainers in systemic change models was among Tom’s efforts to help all of us see that community needs can be met when the foundation for change is based on building strong relationships at all levels. Community agencies were assisted in designing and implementing programs and projects that improve the health and quality of life of the local community, with a special concern for low-income, uninsured, at-risk and vulnerable populations.

We are proud that Tom is a founding director of Housing Works. His leadership example challenges us to build healthy communities that are diverse in age, culture, income and race while holding a preferential option for the poor.  May we meet him in that effort.