DACIA BETTS
INTRODUCTION:
My name is Dacia Betts, and I am the President/CEO of the Institute of Technology, based in St. Louis, Missouri.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
As President/CEO of the Institute of Technology, I focus on Healthcare Informatics training for individuals desiring to work in the Healthcare Information Technology field. I initially provide potential students with a customized Learning Plan utilizing their prior skill sets in Healthcare or Information Technology to assist in their career transition.
BACKGROUND, EXPERIENCE, AND HOW I GOT HIRED:
I grew up in south suburban Chicago where my grandmother instilled my strong spiritual foundation. My dad was offered a position as a fireman in St. Louis County and we made the journey to St. Louis in 1976 where I’ve remained and built a life. I started my college career at St. Louis University and ended at Central Missouri State University where my major was Political Science….it was my childhood and teenage dream to become a Corporate Attorney….I know, what happened right?! Life happened and I ended up soul se
arching until I started as a representative for Primerica Financial Services where I ultimately became a Regional Vice President and it was there where my work ethic, time management and personal development were mastered, that would later influence my success in future business. It also turned me into a workaholic….which didn’t have a positive impact on my marriage. My husband left me with three young children and I was forced to leave Primerica and take a position as a Financial Planner with American Express Financial Advisors. Once again, I thought I’d arrived, but the demand of the hours for a new planner to build a block of business made it impossible for me with three young children and no support to remain in business. I then met with a friend who ran one of the most successful mortgage companies in St. Louis and asked that she teach me the business…life was fantastic , I’d mastered the business and went in to open my own mortgage company where I was extremely successful. I also opened a consultant firm where I consulted firms on hospitality financing and building. We developed such an awesome reputation that we ended up brokering private equity and hedge fund financing across the country, until the economy took a dive and I had to turn my company, Development Concepts, LLC, in a different direction – higher education consulting and career training.
Development Concepts, LLC now offers educational solutions to learning providers around the globe, to deliver a customized service with professional efficiency for good performance and enhanced value to students as well as stake holders. From rationalized education & administrative functions to the usage of advanced methods in information delivery, our educational solutions facilitate and implement the strategies and technologies that enable efficiency. With enhanced technological, functional and organizational capabilities, the philosophy is to help learning providers in empowering vision and mission of education along with meeting both student and business needs. Our team of educational analysts blends their experience with industry best practices from both public and private sectors. Through these tools, we help systems to become an enriched education management system. Such a system leads to better tuition and revenue control. Improved service delivery means nothing but better served students. With such a definite understanding of the most complicated educational challenges, our company has assisted many higher education institutions, corporate learning bodies and government education organizations in achieving high competence. Through our Leadership Training, our team designs and facilitates customized training and organizational development solutions to address human capital issues by identifying and assessing your organizations’ ability to meet its mission and strategic business goals.
Outcomes of working with Development Concepts, LLC include improved net tuition revenue, more effective management of institutional resources, and achievement of specific class profile targets including quality, ethnic and geographic diversity, and program mix.
So how did I end up in the Healthcare IT arena? I decided to utilize the my knowledge and expertise to create an educational program that would make an impact in the workforce shortage of Healthcare Informatics through the implementation of quality certifications that are normally not attainable unless an employer or consultant firm sponsors the course for an employee. I saw a real demand for the fulfillment of a tremendous gap within the Health IT network of newly transitioning career seekers in need of specific vendor certifications to enhance their marketability in the workforce. So many would graduate from HIT programs and ask the question, “What’s next…I’ve completed the training and I’m still not getting the interviews?” Our program allows our members/students who’ve recently graduated from HIT programs to become vendor trained and certified and become contracted with our consulting partners for HIT placement assistance!
I had the ability to transition my prior skill sets and consulting background into what’s now known as the Institute of Technology! Through leveraged and strategic partnerships through LinkedIn, State relationships and Consultants, and I’ve been more successful and have increased our market base globally.
DAY IN THE LIFE:
My day begins around 4:00AM emailing global contacts and searching for placement opportunities for our students on job boards, LinkedIn, Indeed and through our recruiting partners prior to my official day begins. Upon arrival to the office I immediately send out emails and social media messages…I was taught early in my career to send all emails/messages (there was no social media at that time) first thing in order to have responses by afternoon, and to free the mornings up for the planned assignments/tasks. I always devote my mornings to specific tasks, and the afternoons to follow ups. My company has several contracts and therefore I also have some afternoons I devote to working on state contracts as well as education consulting work done by Development Concepts, LLC. I must say, I spend a great deal of time perfecting our business model by creating specific career paths for our members and students by building certification paths based on their specific backgrounds, i.e. a new student with a number of project management experience without a PMP Certification will have the opportunity to also become PMP Certified, HIT Certified and Vendor Certified. My passion is in building our students into power houses!
I’m now working on building programs for ICD-10 Consultant, ICD-10 Analyst, Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management, Healthcare Cloud and a host of other Vendor certification programs to assist with building strategic career paths. In the Technology field, certifications are key…..I put in place for our students certification bundles designed for their career paths. I feel I’ve only tapped into our potential and work daily to find ways to enhance our program offerings and build collaborative partnerships.
CAREER ADVICE:
My advice to one seeking to do what I do…. is to have a strong level of tenacity, perseverance, commitment, and above all have the ability to lead a balanced life. True wealth and success is not solely based on a financial status, its ones overall happiness, health, love and spiritual balance. If I had it to do over again, I would ensure a lot more formalized training and education (in which I’m now pursuing my PMP Certification and am climbing the belts of Six Sigma) early in my career. I have a clear understanding now that certain skill sets are transitioned from business to business. I live by my favorite quotation:
“High achievers spot rich opportunities swiftly, make big decisions quickly and move into action immediately. Follow these principles and you can make your dreams come true.” – Robert H. Schuller.
I don’t ponder and waste time with anything, time is of the essence when opportunities present themselves. I am often amazed by the number of individuals who miss opportunities because of the inability to make a decision. Overall, I’m a true entrepreneur at heart. I feel I can capture any business model and make it my own……now if I could only find three more of me….
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I’m looking to capture the market on vendor training to assist in the creation of skilled Health Informatics Professionals as one of the few institutions to create the missing link in the transitioning workforce! We will be offering at least four Vendor Certification training programs by June of 2012 as we target graduates of HITECH, CHISP, Health Informatics, Nursing and Information Technology programs and lead them into their destiny.
“Companies in the healthcare industry say it is most difficult to find skilled software developers, followed by networking and security professionals,” Robert Half International says in a press release. With that in mind, I’ve taken a personal plunge into building a highly skilled Health Informatics workforce through offering certifications that compliment prior experience. Watch for the Institute of Technology and its collaborative partners to provide training, consulting and placement services globally as we move towards building our Vendor training offerings and Masters Degree programs in high growth employment sectors.
Dacia Betts
