Val Gokenbach DM, RN, MBA
Dr. Val Gokenbach has a true passion for leadership and has been in administrative healthcare positions for over thirty years. She is currently the Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer at Baylor All Saints Hospital. Prior to joining Baylor, Val ran her own consulting business called Dr. Val Leading Leaders where she helps organizations improve their organizational success, develop leaders and coach executives. As a senior executive, she has managed an expansive span of responsibility, which included Nursing and several support departments such as radiology, respiratory therapy, radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, oncology services, neurodiagnostic services, employee health, integrative medicine, schools of allied health, patient service departments and the emergency services. Her greatest accomplishment has been leading the nursing team to the receipt of the prestigious Magnet accreditation awarded on January 14, 2004 for nursing and organizational excellence and re-accreditation in 2008.
As a professional dancer and fitness instructor for over 40 years, Val has led a dual life as a fitness presenter, consultant and dance instructor. She worked for Aerobics Fitness Association and traveled extensively presenting health and wellness programs for fitness instructors and the general public. This exposure led her to the opportunity to work with companies such as Omron and Oregon Scientific as a spokesperson for health and wellness products and serve as a guest host on the popular QVC sales network and Shopping Channel in Ontario. She also developed a line of exercise videos called “You Can Do This” which were also sold on QVC.
Val is also involved in several community initiatives and served as the co-creator of Safety City USA, the first free standing, non-profit interactive learning facility for the community, dedicated to the reduction in pediatric trauma and Mitch Albom’s S.A.Y. clinic for homeless moms and kids in Detroit and the Have Faith Haiti Mission in Port Au Prince Haiti of which she serves as the Administrator.
In her past time, she lectures on health and wellness topics and is active on several advisory and leadership boards throughout the community. A well-known author, she recently released her own wellness book “Tap Dancing through Life: Seven steps to finding your rhythms and the life of your dreams,” and is featured in Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul: A second dose and Nurse Executive: The four principles of Management from Springer Publishing. Her newest book was released by CRC Publishing titled, Phoenix Leadership: A Healthcare Executive’s Strategy for Relevance and Resilience.
She possesses a doctoral degree in management and organizational leadership, a master degree in business administration and a bachelor of science in nursing and is a RWJ Executive Nurse Fellow and a past Magnet Commissioner.
Phoenix Leadership for Business: An Executive's Strategy for Relevance and Resilience - 1st Edition
Released on November 16, 2018
The world continues to ride a wave of turmoil, challenging leaders like never before. New laws, competitive markets and the need to respond to the demands of corporate boards and stockholders unnerve even the most senior of leaders resulting in progressively shorter tenures of those in leadership positions. The modern leader needs to be increasingly resilient and their leadership must be entirely relevant to their organizations and the industry.
Phoenix Leadership for Business: An Executive's Strategy for Relevance and Resilience provides a brand new, innovative concept, that of the Phoenix Leader, with proven strategies and approaches to evolve your leadership approach to one that is flexible, powerful and effective. This book utilizes the strong metaphor of a Phoenix and identifies all of the necessary techniques that leaders need to improve profitability, resource management and organizational success thus improving their relevance to the company.
This book introduces a new paradigm created by Val Gokenbach for leadership in complex organizations and provides effective strategies that will guide leaders in the business field. Val possesses a doctoral degree in Management and organizational leadership and over 40 years of experience as a healthcare executive. She is also a leadership consultant, professor, executive coach and author on leadership topics. You, as a business leader, will learn to reinvent yourself by putting her proven concepts into effect to become a Phoenix in your organization.
Phoenix Leadership: The Healthcare Executive’s Strategy for Relevance and Resilience
Today’s healthcare leaders are facing challenges unlike ever before. New healthcare laws, reimbursement models and regulations unnerve even the most senior of leaders resulting in increasingly shorter tenures of those in leadership positions. The modern healthcare leader needs to be increasingly resilient but all relevant to their organizations and the industry.
Phoenix Leadership: The Healthcare Executive’s Strategy for Relevance and Resilience provides a brand new, innovative concept, that of the Phoenix Leader, with proven strategies and approaches to evolve your leadership approach to one that is flexible, powerful and effective. The attributes of the Phoenix Leader include:
- A strong sense of self
- Effective interpersonal relationships
- Ability to build an empowered workforce
- Innovative
- Resilience
This book introduces a brand-new paradigm created by Val Gokenbach for leadership in complex organizations and provides effective strategies that will guide leaders in the healthcare field. You, as a healthcare leader, will learn to reinvent yourself by putting these proven concepts into effect to become a Phoenix in your organization.
Tap Dancing through Life
Tap Dancing through Life is designed to provide you a system by which to evaluate and improve your life. It begins by learning about rhythms and the effects of those rhythms on our lives. We are all creatures of habit and follow very particular rhythms. It is when those rhythms are out of balance that we feel stressed, frustrated and suffer illnesses. The metaphor of tap dancing is used because tap as a style of dance is based on changes in rhythms that result in alternating patterns.
After learning about rhythms, you will take a journey into who you are through a critical examination of your values, desires and goals. You will learn how to create and evaluate your goals and actually write a road map for your life desires.
Once you know where you are going, a series of rhythm success factors take you there. You will learn about the power of positive thinking, how to control stress, the importance of sleep, exercise and nutrition and learn to develop strategies to improve your current rhythms if necessary.
Tap Dancing Through Life Tap Dancing Through Life – Daily Success Journal
Contributing Author: Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul: Second Dose
A story of Val’s career choice in becoming a registered nurse, and an experience that proves those who choose nursing as their profession are truly gifted with an ability to perform everyday miracles.
