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6A Nora Luna Hispanic/Latino Program Manager Executive Director Nathan Adelson Hospice Y Candice Nichols The Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada ou could say Nora Luna is in the gap-bridging business. A native Nevadan whose parents emigrated from Mexico, Luna understands the plight of those navigating systems in a foreign land. Personally, she remembers taking ESL classes as a child and literally feeling lost in her home country."I remember a friend's mom tried to take me home and I couldn't give her directions," she said, now laughing about the situation. Experiences like these shaped Luna for her current and past career roles. She spent 13 years implementing and monitoring programs at the University of Nevada, Reno. Most of those years were spent in the school's center for substance abuse. Healthcare and education were always her major focuses at UNR, especially when it came to outreach to Latinos. "It's something I'd seen for a long time, so many families struggling to navigate the education and healthcare systems," she said. When she arrived at Nathan Adelson Hospice a year ago, she dove into her own personal immersion program. To learn more about the hospice concept and how to effectively communicate it to the Hispanic community, she called families of former Hispanic patients, sat in on grief counseling sessions, rode along with social workers and chaplains for home visits and read all the medical literature she could find. The common link between Hispanics and hospice, she found, was confusion. The word "hospice" can translate into something loosely meaning orphanage in Spanish, Luna explained, creating a very negative perception among many Latinos. "For Latinos that's a place for abandoned people with no family. … This is so much more than just translating brochures into Spanish," she said. "In brochures we talk about spiritual, emotional and physical comfort. We don't even use the word 'hospice.' " While implementing a new Latino marketing campaign is on the 2013 agenda, conducting a host of cultural awareness seminars and training programs for the center's staff and physicians is also a must. Some of her workshops and seminars also bring Continuing Education Units for nurses, social workers and other providers. Going forward, Luna is also considering a degree in healthcare administration to help her advance within the Nathan Adelson organization. — Brian Sodoma T he big thing happening at the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada this year will be growth. In the year just ended, Nichols and her group kicked off a $4 million capital campaign and renovated a 16,000-square-foot building at 401 South Maryland Parkway. "Right now the center is a very small organization," she says. "We're in a storefront right now." With the new building, she adds, "We kind of look at ourselves as the east anchor of the downtown project. It is a freestanding, very visible building on 1.1 acres." The grand opening, set for this spring, will be only the beginning, Nichols explains. "We will also be expanding our staff, and expanding the programs and services we provide." The new building will include a healthand-wellness center with private assessment rooms. "We have a partnership with the Health District now, where they come in two days a week to do HIV, STD and HEP A&B screenings. Hopefully they will be there five day s a week." Those services will also be open to the community at large. "We have a partnership with the Nevada Dental Association, and we are very excited to be able to provide some dental care, hopefully at low cost," says Nichols. "The area in which we're located is home to low-to-moderate income residents, just on the fringe of the lawyers/business area, so we are hoping to be able to provide even more services to that segment of the community." The building's lobby space can also be used in the evening for pro bono legal services. Nichols and her group also plan to expand their youth programming, with a drop-in center that will be open every day. "Our youth will extend the services we provide. With the drop-in center they will be able to come in after school and have a much larger space to hang out, play pool, have activities." Nichols is excited by the building's proximity to the law offices. "That means people who normally wouldn't come through our doors because they wouldn't have a reason to now will. They will get a great lunch and some wonderful coffee. That's great because then they can learn about our services, who we are and what we provide there. — Howard Riell Cindy Moehring Executive Director of Corporate Benefits MGM Resorts International C indy Moehring may her foray into the hospitality industry in 1996 when she obtained an entry-level position as assistant to the chief financial officer of MGM Grand. Since then, she has ascended the corporate ladder, having been named benefits special projects manager, retirement plan manager and later went on to serve as director of retirement plans. In her current position, which she assumed in 2008, Moehring oversees benefit administration for MGM International's more than 65,000 employees, and is committed to improving retirement plans and helping employees save money. But Moehring — whose father was a physician and whose mother was a nurse — is as passionate about healthy lifestyles as she is about healthy retirement programs, and has resolved to incorporate proper diet, nutri- 20130128_VI01_I.indd 6 tion and fitness into the company's corporate culture. For example, last year, Moehring and her team devised methods to address the problem of obesity in the workplace, starting in the company cafeteria. "When we rolled out our new Direct Car Health Plan in January of 2012, company Chairman Jim Murren took us to lunch in the employee dining room, and we saw someone eating a giant plate of greasy nachos, and it occurred to us that we should be offering healthier choices," said Moehring, adding that the epiphany precipitated the companywide launch of "Jim's Plate," which brings a daily nutritious dining option to the table. "We replaced French fries with hummus, eliminated other fried foods, swapped out white bread with whole wheat, and we're introducing more whole-grain pasta and low-fat cheese. The idea is to help employees be healthier by removing barriers." Moehring is also spearheading MGM Resort's partnership with the Jared Foundation, with the objective of addressing chronic obesity issues among children in Southern Nevada, including the estimated 35,000 school-age children of the 50,000 local MGM employees. As for the future, "While 2012 was the year of food, our goal for 2013 is to see if we can do something to promote physical activity," Moehring said. "We are looking for ways to incentivize employees to realize that fitness is not onesize fits all. You don't have to go to the gym and pump iron to be healthy. You can go into the backyard and throw the Frisbee with your dog." — Danielle Birkin 1/24/13 2:17:12 PM