Printer-friendly versionShare via Email

The Michigan Sandbox Party launches its profile series, "Sandbox Stars," of individual advocates working to improve the lives of Michigan’s youngest citizens with a conversation with Denise Sloan, executive director of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Next to kindergarten teachers, pediatricians are viewed as the most trustworthy sources of information for parents of young children. As executive director of the Lansing-based Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Denise Sloan oversees an organization of 1,600 pediatricians. In this Q & A, she addresses what makes a successful  advocate working in Lansing, what she see are the challenges for improving the health and well-being of Michigan’s young children, and her organization’s ability to make a difference.

Q:  How do you define your role as an advocate working in Lansing? And secondly, what does your job entail?
Sloan:  First and foremost I see myself as an advocate for children and their health in the state of Michigan. That’s my primary work in the advocacy arena. In addition to that, I see myself as an advocate of the practice of pediatric medicine.

Our primary responsibilities to our members are to help with their continuing medical education, to continue to be fully licensed and recognized by the American Board of Pediatrics. We do a lot of work in training. Our second responsibility to our members and children is to be their voice on child health issues with state government.

Q:  What brought you to your current position?
Sloan:  I came here six years ago. I spent some of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s as staff in the State Legislature, working in the area of policy on children and family services, social services and economic development. As a staffer in the Legislature, I was on the receiving end of advocacy.

After many years, I became a partner in a consulting firm for 12 years. There, I helped organizations develop their advocacy messages and trainings to assist them. We had a lot of nonprofit clients; we helped with political campaigns. I also did some work in Washington, D.C. on federal budget priorities.

Then when my partner decided to retire, I decided to do something different for what might be the last stage of my career. So I sold the business and came full circle to working on policies for children for the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

However, when I first started out, as a graduate of MSU, I worked for a consumer advocacy organization which opened my eyes to the possibilities of government being a positive force in people’s lives. It evolved from there.

Q:  What did you learn from working inside government as a legislative staffer?
Sloan:  One of the things I learned that’s very important to understand is what government is able to do and what government can’t do. I have become a student over the years of the Michigan Constitution. And it think it’s very important for advocates if want to be successful to understand what the limits are – what’s doable whether in executive branch, or legislative or sometimes the judicial branch.

The other important thing is to build relationships with policy makers. It’s all about relationships. Someone who might be an ally one day may not be your ally on another issue on another day. It’s very important not to burn bridges because your opponents today may be part of your coalition tomorrow.

Q:  Sources say you’re not only one of the sharpest people but nicest people in Lansing. How do you maintain your calm demeanor in such a rough-and-tumble political world?
Sloan: I think you have to know when to dig in your heals and be tough when you’re negotiating. You need to know your bottom line and be firm. And you can do that without being nasty. In the atmosphere we’re currently in, that is so partisan, we absolutely must have this. You can’t do this and be demeaning or personally insulting. But there are examples of these elected officials who call each other names, refer to lobbyists by derogatory names. You don’t have to do that to get your point across.

I didn’t come up in the political arena during a time when it was as polarizing and partisan as it is today. There was more civility when I learned how to do this business. I don’t think you have to succumb to that. You can still succeed.

Q: What inspires and keeps you motivated? 
Sloan:  The things I’m able to work for here really motivate me and that is to be an advocate for children and children’s health. Good health is critical for our kids to be able to grow and achieve all they can be. I know from my own experiences of being mom and raising two kids that when your child is ill you have to have faith in the physicians and pediatricians you take them to to make them well.

This work is a big responsibility. We’re talking about our children and their future. It’s a big responsibility and I feel strongly that I have to do my best on their behalf. At the end of the day, I’m not an advocate for an insurance company working to make a bigger profit margin for it or a corporation or big business. I’m an advocate for what’s in the best interest of children and their health. That’s a very altruistic statement and it’s what motivates me.

Q: What are some of the important issues you’ve been able to move forward?
Sloan: I’ve worked a considerable amount of time in the area of immunizations. There’s a whole generation of parents of young children who have a need to be educated about the importance of immunizing kids. The media has run a lot of talk about vaccinations causing autism, for example. Well there’s no sound science behind that. But some celebrities have taken that on.

There’s a generation of parents who have not lived with the epidemics of mumps, or measles, or chicken pox, or polio. We’ve been doing a lot of education with families. I also focus a lot of time working with the media to get the immunization message out. I feel strongly about this. I’m old enough to remember polio. I had a cousin with polio and she was in an iron lung. I think it’s very important that parents take immunizations very seriously.
 
Another issue is the fact that with high unemployment Michigan has a disproportionate share of kids on Medicaid. That can be problematic. Because Medicaid does not pay enough to cover a physician’s cost, so many practices have to limit the percentage of kids on Medicaid that they have in their practices. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to keep their doors open. So the access issue is very important to me. And we’ve had some success in this. Working with the state budget office in the most recent budget year, we helped them understand that just because a kid has a Medicaid card doesn’t ensure they’ll have a physician. Often this forces kids to get their care in an emergency department and that’s not good preventive care. We were fortunate to have a big win working with Medicaid and the government which did not cut the Medicaid rate in this past budget,   helping to maximize the number of children who do have physicians. I don’t want to see kids get their care in an emergency room.

Q: Can you tell us about some of the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics priorities for 2012?
Sloan: Certainly, childhood obesity and overweight issues are high priorities from a policy prospective working with the state Department of Community Health. Another is working with our members to train them on how to treat obesity. There’s a lot of new work coming out in the treatment of childhood obesity. We have a responsibility to our members to give them the most recent, up-to-date, evidence-based treatments.

In terms of policy work, we’re going to continue to spread the word on developmental screenings throughout the state among physicians but also among other healthcare providers so that children are screened early for developmental delays and we can nip delays in the bud.

We will be looking at legislation for tanning beds, as I see us taking a hard look at that this year.

Also, there are new guidelines that came out on “Safe Sleep” from the national association.  We’ll be doing a lot of work educating parents on what is “Safe Sleep” for infants to keep our infant mortality rate down this year.

Q: When you’re not working, how do you spend your time?
Sloan: I’m an avid reader. I love my book club. I love history a lot – I’m a history nut!  And I love to cook. Recently with all this discussion on obesity I decided I needed to lose weight. So I’m becoming really skilled at making really good tasting Weight Watcher meals. And they really are good. I better practice what I preach, huh?