The RISE Healthy Communities Summit on Tuesday opened with a powerful throughline: resilience is not only personal—it’s organizational, systemic, and essential to sustaining impact in health care.
Across the morning sessions, speakers urged attendees to rethink how they manage energy, use language, and cultivate community in environments designed to test their limits.
Keynote Dr. Heather Denniston on turning resilience into a renewable resource
Dr. Heather Denniston delivered an energizing keynote reframing resilience not as the ability to “bounce back,” but as a skill you can intentionally build and replenish.
Her core message: burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s a signal of misaligned priorities, chronic energy drains, and systems that demand more than they support.
Denniston broke down two major barriers to resilience:
Brain drain, which is caused by countless micro‑choices, productivity losses from multitasking and context switching, and difficulty focusing due to constant interruptions.
Soul suck, which is due to working outside your strengths, blurred or inconsistent boundaries, and a misalignment between tasks and what truly matters.
To strengthen resilience, Denniston offered five practical strategies:
- Guard your energy: Be intentional about where your time and focus go—energy is your most valuable resource.
- Get curious: Ask questions, try new things even if they aren’t in your comfort zone.
- Practice discomfort: Resilience grows through challenges.
- Mine for joy: Intentionally seek and capture positive moments to counterbalance stress and build emotional strength.
- Find your why: Motivation provides staying power when challenges intensify.
Panel: How evolving language shapes care
Moderated by Vandna Bhrany, panelists examined how shifts in language around health equity influences policy, care delivery, and community trust.
Pictured left to right: Vanda Bhrany, Palak Jalan, Ellen Fink-Samnick, Rick Whitted.
Panelists Palak Jalan, Rick Whitted, and Ellen Fink-Samnick emphasized that while terminology changes, the mission of advancing equity must stay anchored and clear. “The power of shared language still exists—just in a very different way,” said Jalan, CEO of AccessHealth, a Federally Qualified Health Center serving Fort Bend and Waller Counties in Texas.
Key themes discussed included:
- Using language that resonates across diverse stakeholders
- Navigating evolving federal reporting requirements
- Ensuring dignity and discretion in describing communities
“I think sometimes we try to build an infrastructure for the community,” said Whitted, president and chief executive officer at U.S. Hunger. “The community is the infrastructure.”
The panel encouraged attendees to focus not just on words but on how language shapes perception, access, and trust.
Building community in times designed to break you
In a deeply personal and inspiring session, Donna Cryer, chief patient officer, CryerHealth, LLC, highlighted the essential link between resilience and community‑building—especially when systems fail to provide adequate support.
Her message: community is not something you serve; it’s something you build with people. “We are not only a community to the people we serve—we are a community with the people we serve.”
Cryer’s blueprint for sustainable impact:
- Include everyone capable of contributing to solutions
- Create shared wins for all participants
- Teach, empower, and elevate others
- Keep showing up—even when progress feels slow
“Keep having the meeting, whether three people show up or 30,” she said. “It takes time to build trust.” Consistency—not perfection—is what builds trust and long-term change,