Farewell to a stand-up gal

Like any design, construction and operations project, a monthly magazine requires a team effort in which partners at all levels apply their talents and energies to create a final product that otherwise would be impossible.

Though limited due to space requirements, the masthead to the right gives you an idea of the key players who contribute to Health Facilities Management (HFM) each month, with pride of place going to our publisher and editorial director Mary A. Grayson.

While she has led the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum group of publications for much longer than my 15 years here, Mary is perhaps best known to those outside of the organization for her popular monthly columns in our sister magazine, Hospitals & Health Networks (H&HN).

Seamlessly blending her deep knowledge of the health care industry with homespun wisdom, her columns not only have led health care organizations to examine their operations for these many years, but have provided a glimpse into the type of leadership she provided behind the scenes to Health Forum’s editors.

“Leadership is not just about picking that or this strategy or goal; it’s equally about standing up publicly and saying this is what we are going to do and why we are doing it,” she wrote in a column a few years ago. “It takes a stand-up guy or gal and a lot of good old-fashioned backbone.”

Her recently announced retirement has caused us all to reflect on the high standards she set for HFM, H&HN and Trustee magazines as well as Health Forum’s books, newsletters and multimedia projects.

Ultimately, recommitting to the quality of our efforts and the success of our readers and their organizations is the most appropriate tribute we can pay her.