MARCH/ APRIL 2015 | ISSUE 2

Relevance Onlinewww.relevance.epicenterus.com

Kimberly VelezPassion

Commitment&Dedication

Inside this issue:HealthTechnologyBusinessand more

Health SenseHaving a bad day? Spilled your coffee, got stuck in traffic, late for a meeting, blah, blah, blah. In the grand scheme of things does this really matter?

No, not really! Life happens. It’s going to continue around you, with or without you. Who am I to tell you this? I’m an impatient person myself. But, as I get older, I am realizing that it’s time to let the small stuff go. Don’t get stressed over it. Or, at least try not to! Take a time out! It’s ok. Take some really deep breaths. It will naturally calm you down. Did you eat? You have to make sure you eat! Make it healthy… breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack; not necessarily in that order. You should be eating every 3hrs or so. By doing so you are keeping your metabolism burning, and your stress levels naturally reduce. If you are hungry to the point that your stomach is growling and there is no food in site, your stress level will naturally increase! So why add to the stress? Plan and prepare as much as possible. Keep water in your car and a little cooler of fresh fruit, veggies, and nuts/seeds. Get some sort of exercise in too! Put a smile

Tech Talk: Sony Pictures Was Hacked… North Korea Was Behind It. Now What?Sony Pictures was hacked. Terrorist threats were made. Now a dumb comedy about two journalists trying to kill the North Korean leader isn’t being shown because of threats of terrorist attacks.The group, the Guardians of Peace (ironic name isn’t it?), seems to have gotten their sponsorship from North Korea itself (http://s3th.me/2DT).

First, whose hair-brained idea was it to make a movie plot about killing a sitting world leader? Especially a world leader known for being a little bit unhinged? That was dumb (which is saying it lightly). Even if it’s a leader who is a tyrant and a maniac, it’s in poor taste.

Second, what can the US do? North Korea is a rogue, isolated, desperate nation with nuclear weapons. There has to be some kind of recourse, I know that, but what? There are already sanctions against the country. We can invade without starting World War III. Maybe a cyber-attack back? But wouldn’t that just fan the flames more?

I don’t think there’s an easy answer.

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Kimberly (Kim) Velez is a proud and passionate professional. As a Marketing and Public Affairs Manager at Lehigh Valley Health Network / Children’s Hospital at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) she’s been a determined advocate for pediatrics and children’s health. She has helped promote many initiatives that have made the hospital experience more pleasant for children and their families, such as iPads to help put Children’s ER patients more at ease and “babycams” (webcams) that allow families of premature infants to maintain constant contact during their hospital stays. Kim’s crowning achievement has been Community Canvas, where aspiring area elementary school

artists show off their skills by creating artwork in multiple competitions based on healthy eating and exercising themes.

“Community Canvas is a true representation of the progressive impact that can be made among children and their families when community

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“Kim understands the importance of integrat-ing marketing with mission, and marketing

with social responsibility. Community canvas is a good example of doing both.”

(Nathan Hagstrom, MD, Chair of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospi-tal at LVH)

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partners come together for a meaningful cause. The relationships we continue to build with collaborators who are equally as passionate in promoting healthy habits are crucial to ensuring effective messaging around health in our community.” says Velez. The partners she refers to are Cheryl Baker, Principal of Forward Motion Consulting, LLC and Zeke Zelker, Co-founder of Lehigh Valley Art Spark. Together they are in the second year of the program in which approximately 2,500 Lehigh Valley family members have been reached through the program’s corresponding educational school assemblies and the Community Canvas art competitions. “This year, we’ve added the expertise of Communities In Schools in identifying providers for the assemblies as well as some of our very own local chefs from well-known area restaurants who are offering free, healthy meal samplings at the art events. It just demonstrates the level of commitment that exists locally in support of wellness education.” adds Velez. All art works completed by the children are currently on display at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest in a Children’s Hospital art gallery. The program will conclude this May with a free, local appearance by a popular teen celebrity that will be open to the public.

“I am very fortunate to be a part of a health network that understands the influence of positive role modeling and fully supports initiatives such as Community Canvas. I also get to work closely with and learn from some of the best healthcare experts in the entire region.” says Velez. Kim continues her work joyfully and inspired at Lehigh Valley Health Network / Children’s Hospital at Lehigh Valley Hospital and is anxious to see the Lehigh Valley thrive in a technological revolutionary sense. She cites existing innovations in sustainable food security and health preservation as examples. Kim has a strong desire to ensure a healthier future for our children through smarter, efficient and cost-effective fresh food production. She’d also like to help bring education for sustainable development to all classrooms where the

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focus includes community-based decision-making, environmental stewardship and basic principles for a good quality of life.

The future for Kim is bright. She is excited to move forward with her work at the hospital supporting children and their families.

To learn more about Community Canvas you can visit LVHN.org/Canvas or reach out to Kim at Kimberly_d.velez@lvhn.org

on your face, even when you really don’t want to. Learn to laugh at yourself, turn up the music (especially the next time you are stuck in traffic), sing along and dance! You are never guaranteed tomorrow! So go ahead and have yourself a fantastic day today and every day after that!!!

Lisa Drew is a Certified Nutritionist operating Lisa Drew Wellness providing nutrition and health plans to fit your lifestyle. Learn more about Lisa at www.lisadrewwellness.com.Life is a journey…Live healthy along the way!!!

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What Are You Worth?Money is only a tangible form of cur-rency to represent the real form of payment.

We pay for everything with “Hours of your life”. That’s right, think about it. When you pay your bills, aren’t you presenting paper money to pay that was given to you by a bank from an account in which your paycheck was deposited; a paycheck that was payment for hours that you worked? You don’t pay with money, you pay with your time; your minutes, your hours, your days.

Most people now use their debit card to make purchases. As a result, no actual money changes hands, so you can translate everything into hours worked. If you make$15.oo an hour you can say that a bill of $150.00 from Comcast (that’s a more friendly number then people are used to, remem-ber this is an example) will cost you 10 hours of work.

TIME, how important is it? Well there are whole departments much like Resource Planning or Workforce management whose sole purpose is to manage the time of a call centers, manufacturing, packaging or large workforce. Mature companies understand that a small investment in these plan-ners will reap huge rewards in time management Continued on page 11

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As far as the choice to pull the movie after the GOP (the hackers), made threats of a new 9/11, I think it was a bad idea. Now hackers and countries have a playbook on how to get their way and effect Americans’ freedoms. They found the weak point in the United States’ armor. This is not a good thing. In my opinion a terrorist attack has already occurred that might have an even more lasting impact on our country than a physical attack. After all terrorism doesn’t have to manifest itself in death and carnage. It just needs to instill terror — which is exactly what it did.

I don’t want another 9/11… But now that we have set this dangerous precedent, what’s next?I’d love to hear your thoughts! Hit me up on Twitter @sethgoldstein.

Seth Goldstein is the founder of PhillyTech.org Netcast Network, a podcast network focusing on the technology and startup scene emerging and growing in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. He is also the creative director of Goldstein Media LLC, interactive agency based in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Tech Talk: Continued from page 2

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What Defines You Professionally?Is your professional career defined by your successes or your failures? Is it defined by who you worked for, where you worked? Who your clients were? Is it defined by what you stood for, how well you have done your job, your knowl-edge, your skills or even your morals and ethics?

I think that our professional definition changes throughout the phases of your career and with the pace of technology and social advancement. In the early days of someone’s career, it’s all about establishing yourself and proving that you have what it takes to do the job of your chosen profession. Once you have accomplished that you move into a phase where your morals and ethics can be test-ed and brought to task. You have to make the tough decisions and prove that you not only have the skills but the fortitude to be successful.

Only then does it matter who you worked for, who your clients were/are. Your resume is only as strong as your network will allow it to be in the current time of social network-ing. Gone are the days of submitting your resume and overselling yourself into a role, in today’s world with professional social networking you can’t over sell yourself and you can’t hide your flaws. In 2015, I believe that your network defines you professionally. In business it has always very much been about who you know not what you know. I believe that today’s world that has shifted to “It’s who you know and what you know.”.

Gina is a results-oriented business professional with over 14 years in the marketing, customer service, consumer affairs, sales and pharmaceutical industries working with Fortune 100 and 500 companies. Learn more about her on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/ginablevins/ and visit www.epicenterus.com.

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and efficiency. We all know we have a limited number of days in our lives, we grow, we age and we only have a certain number of “work” days in our life.

How important is time to you? That is the question of this age. We often hear “I don’t get paid enough to do that.” however; there are people who work hard for next to nothing. If we use time to pay for everything in our lives and we translate that to money we look into “How much is your hour worth.” I would challenge: that is up to you. You have to do the math for yourself, I did some dirty math (quick math in my head using rounded and estimated numbers) and found that my hour is worth to me $29.82.

Where did I get that number? You ask, well I added my house, cost of repairs, cost of my hobbies, es-timated cost of raising my children and so on for 20 years. This is based on 40 hour week, this is my “needed” hour rate to do what I want in life. This being determined I had to ask myself: “Am I working as if I deserve $29.82 an hour?” That’s easy, no I am not. It’s something I am working on and soon I would like to say I put in that kind of day. So this is what I ask you, are you giving 100% of what you think you deserve out of life? Are you putting in enough to deserve what you make? Or do you want to be in a place that lets you live your dreams. I am not saying it’s easy and I am not saying everyone can do it, but are you trying? Are you putting forth the effort that even without the product you are working to earn what you want? If not you never will.

You can’t expect to find yourself in a po-sition that pays you what you want to be paid to do all those things in life you want and need if you don’t act like it. Attitude and drive are missing today because people have forgotten the real value in money, it’s not about a piece of paper that you trade for the things you want, it’s about the hours of your life you gave to have that item. Is that thing you want but don’t need worth the hours you spent working for it?

If you aren’t making what you want to make are you working as if you deserve it now? My commitment to myself is to work for what like I deserve what I want to get paid. I challenge you to do the same.

Jack Rudd Jr is a Resource Planning Professional with more than 10 years experience in contact centers. He has a BS in Business Information Systems and resides in Maple Falls, Washington with his wife Christa and 4 children: Cara. Xander, Magnus and Dorian. You can learn more about Jack by visiting his LinkedIn Profile.

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What Are You Worth: Continued from page 6