Community alignment specialist Maria shares what her role means, her inspiration, and how she stumbled upon the role. Originally working in education and a head start system, Maria applied her skills and passion for helping people to transition into her current role at Frederick Health Hospital – and she says she absolutely loves her role.

What’s a community alignment specialist?

Maria says, “A community alignment specialist is someone who’s really focused on connecting community resources and making sure that they are available to everyone in the right amount that they need at the right time. So it really is very broad. So sometimes a resource could be a playgroup for parents and their very young children and sometimes it has more to do with, like a social service, like accessing a SNAP benefit. So we see all of those things as being really important for every family. So it really was specifically this role.

The program that we’re running [at Frederick Health] is very innovative and it is focused on postpartum care and infant care in a way that isn’t really done broadly. And so when this program became available, it was something that I really felt like I needed to be on board with so that I could reach as many people as possible.”

What were you doing before this role? Did you start in health care?

“I’ve actually worked within, in a head start system, so in a school system. And I felt like health care interacts really well and more frequently than most other social service systems. And so this was a point where I could kind of reach as many people as possible in a way that is very broadly accepted by the community.”

What’s the most rewarding part of working in health care?

“The most rewarding thing about my career, I think, [is] that we get to look at things very holistically. We’re looking at the individual, but we’re also looking at the family and the community that they’re in and how all of those things interact together and impact each other.

So I feel like that’s really incredible to be able to have that opportunity and be able to connect people and community organizations and everyone together.”

What advice would you give?

“Just go for it. I think that there are a lot more opportunities in health care than people might initially realize.”

What does a typical day look like for you?

“My day? I do quite a bit. So I might start with working with other organizations to develop a partnership so that we can have streamlined referral systems or I might do a consultation for some of our nurses, case managers and help them find services that are matched to a particular patient. And other times I’m doing community education and I get to go and teach people about all of the work that we’re doing with our program, but also just general health education and mental health and all kinds of things. So I think something that people don’t realize about hospitals is that a lot of them do have a very large community focus. I know that the mission at our hospital is to affect every person in the community positively.”

What do you think people should know about working in health care?

“I think that sometimes people think of a hospital as just being a hospital, but there’s often so much more associated with that. And there’s a lot of attempts to provide education and be prevented, like [we] provide preventative information and [we are] being very integrated into the community.”

The JoinMdHealth campaign focuses on three icons: Head, Hand, Heart. What do you lead with?

“I’d like to say that I lead with my head. But truthfully, I lead with my heart and that’s why I came into this role that I’m in and found the program that I’m in. I feel like the heart informs the rest of it. I know that all of the other pieces are important. But if you really feel passionate about what you’re doing, you can go really far in your career.”

You said you didn’t originally start in health care. What advice do you have for someone who is thinking about pursuing a career in the health care field?

“If you’re trying to find a position that helps you kind of transition into health care, or if you are interested in something more about like social services, which is like where I came from. Look for hospitals that have in their core mission that they are interested in affecting community change. And I think that that is really important to how you’re going to be supported within a particular role. And also any opportunities that you have moving forward.”

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