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Meet Essen Otu of Mountain Park Health Center

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Essen Otu.

Essen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2008, I returned from graduate school in New York to a financial downturn with a master’s degree, a new wife, and no job. After an invite to a fundraising luncheon, I was asked by a former colleague to meet with her and her CEO to discuss a potential opportunity at their organization. That organization was Mountain Park Health Center.

After a successful lunch meeting, a proposal, and some follow up discussions, I was offered an opportunity to join the Mountain Park Team as their Diversity & Cultural Competency Director. Ten years later, I serve as the Senior Director of our Diversity & Community Affairs at Mountain Park.

I have an amazing team who’s charge is to ensure we are the most inclusive, welcoming and community-connected organization that we can be. We’ve helped to create a culture where our patients and employees feel welcomed, respected and connected and have developed amazing partnerships in the community along the way.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve had various professional challenges from great team members moving on for better opportunities for introducing change within my organization that requires buy-in and patience. Obstacles and challenges are inevitable, but I believe optimism is a choice we make every day. I’m inspired by challenges.

In my role, I’m able to serve on various community boards. One of my challenges has been gauging capacity. As a Christian, I believe that God has opened so many doors for me that I should always do my best to enter. However, I’ve had to stop and ask myself, “Can I handle more responsibility?” but my colleagues, close friends, and family have really supported my professional and personal success as a leader, philanthropist, volunteer, friend, father, and husband.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Mountain Park Health Center – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Mountain Park provides affordable healthcare to medically undeserved communities.

About 95k people in the valley call us their medical home, which means what makes us unique is our model of supporting each individual patient with a care team dedicated to improving and sustaining their health.

We not only provide family medicine, but pediatrics, internal medicine, women’s health, dentistry, and pharmacy, but also behavioral health consultants, registered dietitians, clinical pharmacists and much more under one roof. We’re known for really understanding the communities we serve, for providing high quality care with great customer service all while keeping costs low.

One thing that I’m very proud of is how we’ve been thoughtful and intentional about our role in creating a sense of place in our communities. We’ve been able to design and build some of the most beautiful health centers for our patients and staff around by partnering with our stakeholders through and inclusive design process. Our Tempe facility recently won a Fast Company design award! This is a great manifestation of our investments and attention to creating inclusive and welcoming environments.

Another thing we’re extremely proud of is that we now employ close to 1k staff, the majority of which come directly from the communities we serve. We’ve seen so many of our staff grow and develop into roles within the organization that we know will have a lasting impact.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love Phoenix. When I spend time in NYC and Seattle, I enjoyed many of the great things those cities had to offer, but I can’t see ever leaving here. What I appreciate about Phoenix is that it’s still in its infancy as a city.

There is so much opportunity here to build the future. The city is becoming more diverse, is creating its identity, but it doesn’t hurt that we have mostly great weather and a reasonable cost of living, for now.

What I like least about our city is that we sometimes lack in our ability to progress, accept, and change, but overall, I have many more positive attributes I can name than negative ones.

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Image Credit:
Mountain Park Health Center

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

 

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