Host: Hello, everyone. I'm Dr. Ngozi Ezekie and thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of More Than Medicine. I am so very excited to welcome this episode's guest. She is renowned for her social enterprise business leadership and often described as a non profit disruptor who turned around a major agency by leading it as if it was a startup.

Please welcome President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, Dori McWhorter. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm excited to have you here. Oh, Dr. Zeke, it is my honor. Thank you for having me. Oh my goodness. This is going to be so fun. So I welcome you warmly to this podcast. And as I normally start off, I really love people just to get a feel for the star of the day.

And I just really want you to start off by telling us a little bit about how you got started in your career and just sharing a little bit about your walk, your journey.

Guest: Sure. So, well, I started my career in the, what I like to say, the late 1900s, as I started from a professional standpoint, I was an auditor and consulting and did consulting work with Arthur Anderson at the time here in Chicago.

And so I just had just a great experience. So, uh, it's been a really great experience of being in management consulting and public accounting. I worked at organizations like Blue's Allen Hamilton. And my last role, it was that I was a partner at Crowe Horwath and the enterprise risk management space. And so for me, it's just been, This long journey of being in the consulting space and public accounting space.

And then probably about 10 years ago, I was on the board of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, and we were going through a transition with that organization. And I was really so committed to that particular mission that I was like, I want to do that work. That's what I want to do. And so I threw my name in the hat and raised my hand, however you want to say it.

Unfortunately, The board selected me as a CEO at that time. And, you know, we had a great eight year run and three years ago, the YMCA was going through a search process as well. And I decided that I wanted to join the YMCA to really do more work. More, more, yeah, because of just the different footprint that the YMCA had.

I was like, we can do more. We can do more. So decided to come over here.

Host: It's incredible work, and I think in terms of the work we're doing at Sinai and the work of the YMCA, it is so aligned. Absolutely. We know that the YMCA is one of the largest non profits in the entire Midwest, serves more than 200, 000 people every year.

And the mission, I think the mission really says it all. And the mission is that the YMCA is committed to strengthening community by connecting people. Connecting people to their potential, their purpose, and each other, and I think it's beautiful, it's beautifully said, and I feel like there's so much overlap there with what we do, because really, to achieve your potential and connect to your potential, You need health and you need all the pieces that make health possible and make your best health possible.

And so I just think there's a natural intersection. And so I'm really excited for thinking more about this. So obviously the mission is something that everyone can get on board. What really makes this work more fulfilling to you? Then maybe some of the other work that you've done in your very illustrious career.

Guest: Sure. Well, I appreciate that because you really hit on it with our mission is that the Y MCA, we are really focused on helping all people. And for me, that was one of my. really lifetime goals is to be as impactful and contribute as much as I could to humanity. And I feel like that YMCA literally gave me a slice of everyone as a demographic, demographic, right?

So for us, it was around, to your point, with the alignment with what you're doing at Sinai, is that we want to help people have healthier, passionate about their lives and live longer at the end of the day, but we know there's so many factors involved in making that happen. And at the Y, we get an opportunity to touch on a little bit of that, regardless of the services that we're providing.

So whether it's our fitness services or the services from an education perspective that ultimately help people achieve different socioeconomic status. statuses that we know contributes to people's ultimate health and longevity within their lifetime. So for me being at the Y was really just a different platform to be able to expand that reach.

Host: Yeah, and let me just tell you my connection to the Y, because I was thinking about you and thinking about the Y and I was like, It's been such an integral part of my life, too. Oh my goodness, this is in the 1900s, in the late 1900s. I had a fellowship where I spent my summer working at the Y in South Central, where I'm from, working with about 35th graders, working on math skills, and so doing academic enrichment for these kids.

Then in the 21st century, you know, I was in Oak Park and I remember, you know, resuming my volleyball career with this awesome volleyball league at the Y there in Oak Park. And then when I had kids, I remembered doing swimming lessons at the Y in, I think it was La Grange Park. And so I. Throughout my life, I have used the Y to promote academic enrichment for fitness, for fitness for myself, for my kids.

And so I just see all this going super full circle in terms of how holistic the Y is, how that's exactly what's needed. And I would say that, you know, we understand at Sinai that health is not just about Band Aids. Surgeries and medicines, but it's also about how are you making sure that I have the healthy food that's necessary to be able to maximize our health potential?

What am I doing to support the uplifting of the entire community? And so we have community health workers who are people that become a part of the healthcare team that are also now gainfully employed and have insurance on. And so, you know, we have that holistic view. So this is why I'm just, I'm so jazzed about this conversation.

Guest: But you get it because that's what we do, right? That's exactly what we do. We talk about being a part of people's lives from cradle to legacy because of the different stages and phases that we experience as humans. The Y actually has an opportunity to be in all those places. And so I want to make sure that in the Chicagoland region, that we're showing up in all of those phases and all of those stages of life so that people ultimately can have, as we say, fulfill their purpose and potential and connect with each other, because that is the secret sauce for the Y is that community, that connection that we build as we do those things.

That's

Host: right. So I know this, you know, there's so many great stories that you must have from all the different things that is happening at the Y. Do you have like a single or a specific success story that you think comes to mind that you

Guest: think would be great to share? Well, I was at our South Side Y, which is, you know, coincidentally right across the street from the upcoming Obama Presidential Center on Stony Island right there.

And we were doing a walkthrough with some folks and we passed one of the members of the Y. And I think she could tell that some, we were thinking about some stuff, cause she was like, Let me tell you something, like, okay. And she said that her family has been a part of that Y for four generations. She was sitting there with her husband and her grandchild, where her, she was taking her grandchild to swimming lessons.

And then she herself was participating in the, uh, Old school hip hop bootcamp class. And then she proceeded to say, you know, my husband, he just had a stroke and the poor guy is like, Oh my God, what is she going to say? She's like, my husband just had a stroke. And he went in there and the doctor was asking, talking about his milestones and how well he's doing.

And he asked him, what was he doing? And she's like, I told him he goes to the Y and he walks the rocking track while we're doing this and that. So that, In that moment, you literally saw that multi generational impact that the Y has, because we literally do have something for everyone. But to your point, We think that the health outcomes that we can support, whether it's the fitness opportunities that folks have, or just the connection that folks have, because that's the thing too, her doctor had noted, or his doctor had noted that he, at one point, wasn't improving, but because he was literally sitting outside, Side on the pool deck waiting for his grandchild.

He met some other older gentleman that encouraged him to start walking with them. Perfect. There's a community. And so it was that community connection that ultimately got him going. Yeah. And then he had the connection as well as the benefits from then being able to do the walking track while his grandkid and wife are participating in other things.

And so to me, that's what the Y does in all of our communities.

Host: Wonderful. What a beautiful example. So another thing that your team is really focused on is growing workforce development programming. Tell us a little bit about the program and of course we know why this is so important. Let's get into that.

Guest: Sure. So I'm actually really proud of the team that within the last couple of years, we've been able to, I would say, reignite our workforce development programming. If you look at the Y's history, we're 166 years old. And if you look at the history, we were Always doing some type of job training and even more recent history, recent meaning in the 40s, there's this picture that when we saw the Black migrants from the South, that there was a YMCA auto mechanic school that folks were getting trained on to be auto mechanics.

So the Ys always had this legacy of job training and supporting people getting into new areas for work. And And so we know that jobs and the ability to support people's families is so critical to all communities. And so we really wanted to make sure that with the presence of our facilities, that we really offered opportunities for people to increase their skills and gain new employment opportunities.

So we were so fortunate to focus in one area, which is with the Illinois Works as a State program that allows for us to train folks to get them in pre apprenticeship construction training. And this is so awesome because we'd go through a full programming with them and what we saw, we've run the program at multiple sites.

So yes, at our Southside Y, but also in Naperville and also in Palatine. And what we saw when we opened up the application for a couple cohorts of about 50 folks total, we got over 500 applications. And then, I was told that, you know, the suburbs don't need these types of services. Wrong. We opened up the application in Naperville for 25 slots.

We got over 200 applications. And we took the application down, and then someone showed up on our doorstep saying, Hey, I really need this program and this opportunity. So of course we took them in because we're like, yeah, if you took that kind of moxie, we're going to include you in this program. And now what we're seeing is that people are learning new skills and trades and have access to the trades that they didn't have before.

And I love that one of the culminating projects is that because of course we do early learning, that we have them as one of their projects, building children's playhouses for then the kids. We'll judge the quality of the playhouse. So I was like, we're also teaching critical life judging skills to our three year olds.

And I'm like, there's going to be a lot of people with their feelings hurt because those three year olds do not hold back. They can be like, yeah, I don't like that house. So I love from a workforce development program that we're able to do that. We're also able to. Leverage the assets that we have, like our pools.

And so we launched a new program called WaterWorks. And with WaterWorks, what we're doing is giving people lifeguard skills and they're getting the credentials for the lifeguard positions. But then we're also introducing them to water based careers like marine biology. We have this beautiful Lake Michigan out here.

What can people learn about, you know, water conservation? We're taking them up to the Great Lakes Naval Bays. So we're doing all these things to really expose youth for the From 16 to 24, two water based careers starting in our pools.

Host: That's fantastic. And we do know that there's a legacy of many communities of color, just not having access to pools at all.

And so being able to have that and not just learn how to swim, but then go on to think about careers related. Yes, yes. Fantastic. Fantastic. So that's one thing that I know underserved communities have often lacked that you're addressing. What do you think are some of the other essential services that some of our communities lack?

You know, like what are some of the greatest issues that we're trying to tackle and how are we trying to take those on?

Guest: Sure. Well, it's interesting that when I talk about the scope of the Y services, I really like to think of everything that we do, particularly in communities where there's high incidents of violence and things like that, that everything we do is violence prevention at the end of the day.

Because the way we are engaging people, engaging youth. So our youth engagement programs are significant. So whether that looks like workforce development or whether that looks like mentoring or other opportunities that we have in our community hub is really important for us. And so that's one way that we have decided to deeply engage even with our sports programming.

You know, we talk about the activities or the programs in sort of isolation, but the fact is that combination of those programs and services is what we know makes communities safer. And so that is one of the issues that we're really prioritizing. And so we did have programs specifically that called it youth safety, violence prevention, but we're like, I really have a problem with our youth identifying themselves as part of the violence prevention strategy.

So we call it now our teen programming, but we're engaging them in quite. Many of the same ways, but they're participating in our programs, but through that participation, we're able to engage them and positively redirect them in many cases. And that's what we're trying to do as well. So I was like, y'all, we can't be having our babies coming in, identifying themselves, use safety violence prevention.

I'm like, yeah, that's not good for us, right? And it just gives them a different identity that we don't want them to be burdened with. And so we've really been evolving our programming to make sure that they're getting what they need, right? But, and of course, those, the result of that is violence prevention, but not letting that be top of their minds when they come through our doors.

Host: That is so powerful. I mean, it just highlights an essential theme, you know, just words matter, and there's absolutely matter and thinking through that. I was just listening to something where they were having a program like troubled teens, something, and then they, they had to catch themselves and say, That can't be the name of this.

Like these, we want to support these kids. We don't want to label them as troubled teens so that you've got to find a new name. So I love that reckoning that, but you're still doing the work, but let's just call it something

Guest: different. So we're calling it team programming, right? And yes, they are the primary focus of that programming.

And that's important to us.

Host: Yeah. So. Thinking about health care institutions like Sinai, like safety net health systems that serve communities that really do lack some of the resources that are needed and also are facing already some of these glaring health disparities. How do you see us collaborating and partnering with the Y to build that healthy spirit and mind and body for everyone?

Guest: Well, and I know no surprise to you, but we also look at the social determinants of health. And so we know that, yes, there's the clinical pieces that's needed, but then there's all these other social factors, whether it's economic factors or housing, all those things. And so where we can be such a good partner to organizations like Sinai that are providing those critical health services is that we can also be that referral source as people want to engage in different community resources that are needed, as well as, you know, be an environment that, like you mentioned, community health navigators and folks that could say, hey, you know, you can check your blood pressure at the Y, or you can do those things because we do have blood pressure stations, or there's things that people can participate in.

that aren't as intimidating, but we know that just movement is a great way to manage so many chronic health illnesses as well. So I think to the degree that we continue to collaborate and know that we have each other's back in this overall community health approach, that we can just You know, I always say we can go, my one friend, she loves the quote that talks about if you want to go fast, go along.

If you want to go far, go together. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we need to go further faster. But I think together with what you all do and what we do, we can go further faster as it relates to improving community health outcomes.

Host: So glad you said that, because, you know, right now I'm like, wait. The last time I was in a Y I didn't have a blood pressure machine.

But to know that that's there, and it's probably an issue of like asset mapping. Yes. Where you need to know what these other great organizations are doing, like what all they're doing so that you can take advantage. You avoid reinventing the wheel. You don't need to do something that somebody is doing down the street right there.

Right, right. So really trying to like form that stronger bond so that we can have eyes on, ears on like, oh. Look what they're doing. Let me refer, like we've got to make those connections as tight as possible. And I think we definitely have more work to do with that and understanding what all of our partners are doing so that we can take advantage and.

Really partner as strongly as possible.

Guest: Sure. One area that we, I'm talking to my team more and more about is that we have these wonderful pool assets that sometimes have a lot of availability during the day or during non peak hours. How do we use those for different aqua therapies or different modalities that we know that water not only is a healing substance.

source for folks, but can also be easy on the limbs, right, as people are going through rehab and things like that. So I want to make sure to your point, as you're looking at asset mapping, that people understand that we have pools, we have other different pieces of equipment, so that people can continue on their healing journeys, that we can support that as well.

Host: Super, super. So as you look back on this work with the why and not that you're done, you've got more great things ahead, of course, what are some of the big lessons that you've learned from your work?

Guest: Well, one of the big lessons that I've learned, particularly at the YMCA, is that we're all human. And what I mean by that is that we all have different challenges, varying degrees to those challenges, various resources to address those challenges.

But the Y has a pretty expansive footprint. I like to say we're urban, rural. Rural, suburban, exurban, however you want to describe it. We have all the things. We have camps that are effectively in rural America, in both Wisconsin and Michigan, and we have camps in Illinois as well as, and then we do have our, as I mentioned, our suburban locations and our city locations, and it amazes me that we talk about some of these demographics in isolation, but what I've observed is And literally, one time during COVID, I get all the incident reports, and there were two incidents that were very similar, but they happened to very different populations and very different locations.

And it just was a reminder that people get challenged wherever they are, and how we address those challenges matter. And so that's something that I've really been thoughtful about, is that how can I continue to ensure that we are mindful around sort of that human experience wherever that experience occurs.

That's

Host: awesome.

Guest: That's great.

Host: So, as you do this great work, obviously, anytime somebody walks in there, whether they're using the walking track or checking blood pressure or learning how to swim, like, that's a success. So, the why is just an ongoing success every day. What do you look for? Like, how do you define success?

And how do you measure progress? And where exactly are you trying to roll? Yeah,

Guest: that's true. Well, one of the things, you know, we actually want to see communities transform for the better. And we know that all communities have an opportunity to literally be better, whether we measure that by the life expectancy.

For example, we're looking at how we're partnering on the West Side with other health organizations to Look at the life expectancy on the West side, because we know that it's 13 years shorter than the life expectancy for downtown. So I want to look at some of these larger community markers, like longevity, like other health outcomes, like violence, all of those things that we can really demonstrate.

That by the why being present, that we've impacted people's lives in a positive way. Because again, we see this fortuitous cycle, that if we strengthen the community and strengthen the individuals, the communities continue to strengthen those individuals. And those individuals continue to strengthen those communities.

And so we want to make sure that we have the right markers in place to demonstrate that that's in fact happening.

Host: So as the why is trying to ensure that all of this is happening, I guess, it's, it's, It's taking on this transformational journey. So where exactly are we going next and what are you continuing to look forward to adding or

Guest: growing?

Well, one of the things that, and you mentioned it earlier, it is collaboration. The why is, you know, we consider ourselves a community hub. And so if that's the case, the hub means we don't do everything. The hub means that we understand what else is happening in the community, that we can then partner with those folks and connect.

people with the right resources, but also collaborate with folks to say, Hey, how can us coming together, give more to this community, make this community better together. And so that's where I'm really looking to do next is really lean into the fact that, you know, I think the Chicago is the center of the universe.

I said it, I said it. And because of that, how do we. Collaborate with all the great assets like a Sinai, all the great, wonderful people like Dr. Ezeke, how do we make sure that we're really optimizing that collaboration that when we look back or somebody looks back 50, 100 years from now, they could be like, wow, they did that.

Like, I'm looking to make sure that we actually make the city better. We make Chicagoland, the region better because we were here at the same time, in this same space, really leaning into. How do we improve and transform communities for everyone? No, I

Host: hear, I just hear the hope and the hopefulness, and I know that that's your foundation.

So tell me about that hope and why you're so hopeful for the future and why, you know, that these disparities that we see, whether it's life expectancy or some of these other inequities that we definitely are on the path to solving them.

Guest: Yeah, well, I have to say First of all, knowing people like you exist and seeing what you have done throughout your career gives me a lot of hope.

Because I feel like we have the right people in the right places to get some things done. And you're seeing that, you're seeing the conversations change, you're seeing that collaboration that I spoke of. Because it's going to take all of us, you know, the notion of it takes a village, it absolutely takes a village.

And you're seeing the, the people come together. In ways to truly focus on that in a different way. And I think that's the only way we're going to actually see the positive change accelerate if we're all focused on the right direction and moving that direction together. And I see so many signs and glimpses of that across the Chicagoland region that that gives me a lot of hope.

And I just don't, I feel like one with us being in these roles at this time, I just don't feel like we will squander these opportunities that we will make a difference and you already see it.

Host: Ooh. I think that is like the spot to end on, that is such a uplifting. It's not just soaring rhetoric, like it's the truth and it's what we It is the truth.

Guest: You know, I know you, you go to work every day with change on the mind, right? And you're making those things happen. And we know that our colleagues across different organizations in government and different places are also coming with that same mindset. And I'm just really bullish on what I know we will accomplish together.

Host: Oh, I love it. I love it. Snaps. Oh, no, I think that is a great, uplifting, positive spot to end this amazing conversation. So I just want to thank you so much for joining me. I have so enjoyed our conversation. I've enjoyed hearing your story and All the amazing work that you're doing at the Y. I am wanting to end on a quote from your event website that really hits home to me.

We're all in for inclusive, vibrant neighborhoods. We're all in for creating more space for more people. We're all in for locally led community transformation. It takes all of us to change the game. Well, count me in! Yes! We know you're in there! We know you're all in. I'm ready to change the game with you, so I look forward to really Digging into the additional ways that we can partner.

And I'm so grateful for having you again on this podcast today.

Guest: Oh, thank you.