Thank you Kathy for that lovely
introduction. I am so honored to be here as a US Navy Veteran and a PR
Practitioner and I can tell you I am humbled to represent our profession, our
military and our veterans as I accept this honor.
Many people may not know it, but today, as we are gathered here,
there's one percent of our population who are watching our backs as they serve
us with their military service in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard
or Merchant Marines. To those military members who are with us today, can
you please stand for a moment to be
 |
PRSA President Kathy Barbour APR presents the
PR Pro of the Year Award to Paula Pedene APR, Fellow PRSA. |
recognized?
And in our country, they
are followed by another group of people who have defended our freedoms. They
are the seven percent of the population who have left military service and are
now called our veterans. So to any of our veterans who are out there
today who served in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard or Merchant
Marines, please stand for a moment so we may recognize you as well?
To this 8%, the other
92% say thank you for our freedoms. Your service allows us to
assemble here today, to take part in this conference, to vote in our leadership
venues and much more. We owe you a debt of gratitude.
As our society gathered
together on Saturday for the Leadership Assembly, our CEO Joe Truncale spoke
about seven PRSA Values. Of these values, which include:
1. Respect for the Individual
2. Courage
3. Honesty/Integrity
4. A Servant's Heart
5. Innovation, creativity and risk taking
6. A commitment to personal and professional growth
and
7. Achievement....
I want to take a moment
to highlight a few that I know helped me during my 22 months of whistleblower
reprisal when I was "banished to the basement" by senior leaders at
the Phoenix VA Health Care System. In my opinion, these leaders didn't
share these values, as it was okay to reprise against a service disabled
veteran.
But what seemed to be
okay for them, wasn't okay for me or Dr. Sam Foote, who led the charge to
expose the VA Wait Time Scandal. For folks like Sam, myself and others
what they were doing needed to be stopped. Someone had to take a stand to fight it.
Someone had to help our veterans and that is what compelled Sam, myself and
others to collaborate together and fight this battle against some pretty
oppressing odds.
So of these PRSA values
which are the ones I felt were the most prominent in our lives during this
time? Let's see if I can explain....
Did our fight take courage?
One could say it did. Day after day, I had to go into the facility,
where I once was the "face of the VA" and work in a position seven
notches below my pay grade. Here I would help veterans, not with
communications venues and media relations, but in checking out books, logging
patients onto the library computers, faxing documents, providing support
services such as making copies and handing out pens and pencils. I did so
with a smile, while all the while living in a fog of depression. The depression
came from knowing that there was so much good I could be doing in a
communications realm and yet despite having the talent and ability to do so to
face the inability to do so while dealing with verified reprisal by senior
leaders.
Did it involve honesty? Yes
it did. According to the evidence, there was misleading information and
as a result it was hindering the care to our nation's veterans. We knew
that we would have to share our facts, convince people to listen to us and in
some cases to take a stand for ethics even if it meant standing alone.
Did it mean having integrity?
Yes it did. We were waging a battle with the most senior leaders at
the Phoenix VA Medical Center. It was their word against ours, their word
against the patients, and their word against those who were "taken out of
their jobs". It was interesting to see how the battle unfolded.
Among the staff there were those who were my steadfast supporters and who
would constantly pray for me. There were those who began to question my
ethics and integrity because after all I was "taken out of my job".
And then there were those who willingly jumped on the reprisal bandwagon
and constantly tried to throw us under the bus through their words, their
efforts, and their abuse of leadership authority. For Sam it was the
senior leaders trying to paint a picture of him as a "lazy doctor" to
Congressional leaders. And to members of the media to portray him as one
who "didn't know the numbers" or who didn't "grasp the real
effect of what they were doing". Really? In our books, delayed
care is denied care and it needed to stop.
Although it was stopped
then, what still bothers me that to this day, is that some of those leaders are
on paid administrative leave, while others are still in their jobs. To VA
and our veterans, I think this is a disgrace. So if you can join me in taking a
stand, I hope you will by calling for #VAAccountability.
Did our efforts take a Servant's
Heart? We believe it did. We all know now that it was Dr.
Foote who was telling the truth, and he paid a dear price for it. He had
to retire from VA earlier than he had hoped. He had to throw rocks at an
agency he adored. And he had to stand alone to expose the VA wait time
scandal. It was during this time that I helped Sam with public relations
advice and counsel and to put him in touch with staff on the House Veterans
Affairs Committee. To them and to Congressman Jeff Miller, who truly
broke the story about the horror of the waits and delays in veterans’ health
care, we owe a debt of gratitude. We made it through by focusing on those who
were supporting us--our families, our true friends, my legal team of Roger
French, Josh Klinger and others--and my wonderful PRSA colleagues nationally,
in Phoenix and through the Western District.
Yet perhaps most
importantly it meant having faith in God. For you see, even though I
didn't always handle the situation as well as I would have liked--I drank, I
cried, and I lived in a gray fog for many months-- in looking back at it now I
can honestly say that God had me where He needed me to be. And that is
what matters the most.
As Phoenix VA
Whistleblowers our lives will never be the same after being "banished to
the basement" or for exposing the VA wait time scandal. But what I
can say is this, I'm ready for the future whatever that may be and I pray now
to let God be THE guide in my life.
I thank you for this
honor, I'm truly humbled, I'm proud to be a member of PRSA and I am truly proud
to serve our veterans.
Paula L. Pedene APR,
Fellow PRSA
