In March, Janelle Browne, a leader in the North Texas health care human resources field, joined UT Southwestern as Vice President for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer.

Ms. Browne, formerly Vice President for Human Resources at Texas Health Resources, joined Texas Health in 2008 and played an important role there through her oversight of human resources for the company’s 13 wholly owned hospitals and Texas Health Physicians Group. She helped launch Texas Health’s first externally benchmarked employee engagement survey and developed practices that helped Texas Health become nationally recognized as one of the Great Places To Work. Before that, she had extensive experience in academia with executive roles at University of Washington Health Sciences Center and University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.

In her new role, she succeeds Ivan Thompson, who retired in 2018. Center Times recently sat down to talk with Ms. Browne about what drew her to the top Human Resources post at UT Southwestern.

What attracted you to UT Southwestern?

I think about my career decisions and where I want to work; I pick wisely. And then I just invest every bit of my blood, sweat, and tears into making a difference. I love what I do. What most attracted me to UT Southwestern were the outstanding people. Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with UT Southwestern leaders and employees in the partnership with Texas Health. I am now happy to fully support this outstanding organization and the entire campus.

How do you wrap your arms around all the moving parts of an academic medical center like UT Southwestern?

As I learn more about the institution’s three-part mission – research, education, and patient care – I learn more about the needs of each area. I’m learning what the day-to-day challenges are, about the pipelines for the people that they need, and what engages people to stay. Even though we’ll have one approach as Human Resources, understanding all that from the different areas and the complexity of this organization is really critical.

What makes you excited about your job?

I love to build on the success of this organization with the new growth. I’m drawn toward learning and understanding the operations and workforce needs. My role and work is: How do I ensure a great work environment and the right people in that environment to do that job? I want the HR team to be there absolutely supporting every bit of talent management that we need to make this organization successful.

What does a good organizational culture look like to you?

Culture is really ensuring that people are acting in each other’s best interests and also the best for the organization and the people we serve. My role is to support the alignment of the organizational mission and goals with each team member’s passion – then you really have the magic for things to happen. That is reinforced by our institutional values – excellence, innovation, compassion, and teamwork – and our PACT standards. These need to be woven through the fabric of everything we do.

We understand there will be a new employee engagement survey this year.

Yes, and it is one very important way that employees and UTSW colleagues can provide their voice – by taking these surveys. We take the surveys seriously, and we learn from them and use them. I’d really like to see more than 90 percent of the organization participating in the survey. Feedback is important, and that’s part of your contribution – to close that loop and give feedback.

How did you get into the HR field?

I kind of fell into it. I had applied for a new position as a budget analyst in the New Mexico state government, and they said: “We actually have a newly formed Department of Public Safety, and we think you’d be great as the Human Resources Director.” So my first job was as an HR Director for Public Safety in Santa Fe. From then on, I’ve been in and around HR in various roles.

Not many candidates for this job would have already been as up close and personal with Southwestern Health Resources, the clinically integrated partnership between UTSW and Texas Health. Tell us about that.

What a journey that has been; it’s such a unique situation. It takes a lot of creativity to keep parallel organizations going. I always felt like I was a steward for Southwestern Health Resources. I was looking after UT Southwestern’s investment in people as much as I was for Texas Health. It’s been an interesting learning experience, and I’m very much invested in the next phase of that organization and ensuring that the employees and managers get what support they need. I appreciate places that take bold moves to create new partnerships – I think it’s necessary.

Last year, we celebrated a milestone with our 75^th anniversary. How do you bridge the gaps between the past, present, and future?

I respect and understand the history of UT Southwestern. I really appreciate and will learn from those individuals who have been here for 20 and 30 years. And I’m also going to work toward our innovation value to meet the workforce needs of the future.

What do you do for fun?

I and my husband, Mark, enjoy traveling – with an emphasis on historical locations and art, and some beach time. I like to read fiction when I get a chance, including thrillers and mystery novels – I love Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I really like to container garden – I’ve got some flowers and some vegetables around the backyard.

We hear you’re a dog person.

Yes, we have always had dogs: Bailey is a golden retriever who thinks she’s Esther Williams. She’s a good swimmer; she taught herself to swim when she was a puppy. And we have a brand new addition! We now have an 11-week-old golden retriever puppy named Brodie and he has not declared a specialty yet, other than chewing everything in sight.