Finding Purpose in One’s Past: Brenda Rodriguez

Long before she became a community health center CEO, Brenda Rodriguez knew from personal experience their critical importance to society. "I'm a patient," she says proudly. "More than half my life I was homeless or struggling in one way or another . . . but I always knew life can be better." For Rodriguez and her family, community health centers were a "stabilizing force" that provided high-quality, and culturally competent, care and services.

Those experiences guide her today as CEO of Lynn Community Health Center in Massachusetts. "I need to be more courageous, I need to be more bold," she says. "It's not often as a professional where there's this intersection between your personal journey . . .and your professional and career aspirations."

In this candid and colorful conversation with Julie Rosen, Principal and Leader of WittKieffer's Social Impact & Nonprofits Practice, Rodriguez recounts her own experiences with community health centers and how they have shaped her leadership style, combined with a background in business consulting that gives her an approach that is both analytical and inspirational. Whether working with her staff, leadership team, or community members, Rodriguez seeks to "activate their agency".

Near the end of the conversation, Rodriguez explains why "the fish rots from the head" is an unusual maxim that guides her work and that other leaders can heed as well.