MCALLEN, Texas - South Texas Health System held a Meet & Greet at Casa De Palmas in McAllen for their new STHS McAllen CEO, Emma Maria Montes-Ewing.
In her remarks, Montes-Ewing told a couple of stories about her journey from her native Peru and her early days working in the United States. Other speakers were Charles (Chuck) Stark, STHS's regional vice president for South Texas, and J. Humberto Rodriguez, STHS chairman.
Before joining STHS McAllen as CEO, Montes-Ewing held a similar role at STHS’s Doctors Hospital of Laredo.
In his remarks, Stark explained why he hired Montes-Ewing for the Laredo post.
“I'll share with you that three years ago, I was looking for a CEO for Laredo. I knew that I needed someone that was warm, welcoming, engaging, bilingual, smart, accomplished. She was all of that,” Stark said.
“So, I took a chance, and I hired her. And she did amazing things in Laredo. Absolutely amazing things in Laredo. So, when this opportunity became open, and she applied for it, it was natural to look at all the wonderful things that had happened in Laredo, and say, let's do it again, but let’s do it in the Valley.”
In her remarks, Montes-Ewing said she has been on a journey with many lessons, many struggles, and many mentors.
“I do want to tell you, there were three powers that I was able to tap into that... and these are three powers all of us can tap into. The first one is the power of reframing,” Montes-Ewing said.
“So reframing is the choice of looking at a situation that perhaps is not as optimal (as we would like). Because we all know life is not easy. It doesn't always work out the way we want it to. But in reframing, you choose to see it in a different way and focus on the positive because through that you can, or we can, learn something to make it work and to redirect what could have been into what it will be, in will be positive way.”
The second power is the choice of gratitude, Montes-Ewing said.
By gratitude, she said she did not just mean being grateful for the good things.
“Like I am so grateful about being here tonight, this is amazing Or, grateful about a gift my husband gave me that he knew I wanted. It is also the power of being grateful for the ugly, for the scary, for the bad. When things don't go our way, when things hurt, when disappointments reach us. We can be grateful for everything and through that something happens to where, again, you redirect what could have happen.”
The third power Montes-Ewing has learned, she said, is the power of community.
“Here we are today. It is where people come together with a common goal and make magic happen.”
Montes-Ewing then told stories about those three powers.
Here is a video recording of the Meet & Greet:
https://youtu.be/KgKPIY22_IU
