Global Innovation - The Paul Merage School of Business - University ...

& Alumni Go the Extra Mile
by John Gregory
I also continue to benefit by their career evolution and
the network that provides.”
Paul Leon (‘09)
Paul, a health care nurse with
the Orange County Public
Health Department, drove to
an emergency center in March
2007 to help a 64-year-old
diabetic man with his catheter.
What Paul saw at the center,
housing 150 homeless people,
was far more than one man in
need of medical attention. He summoned three ambulances
and, as he told the Orange County Register, “I
could have stayed there all night and day” helping
others.
Learning that a second county-run emergency center
had the same lack of medical assistance, Paul created
the Comprehensive Health Assessment Team –
Homeless (CHAT-H), a new county department to
improve medical services for the county’s 35,000 homeless
people. Since the two shelters only serve 1 percent
of this population, the scope of CHAT-H is county-wide.
During the program’s formation stages, Paul’s work
was largely voluntary. Eventually, the county created a
position for him as the first full-time nurse to serve the
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
homeless population exclusively. CHAT-H now has a paid
psychiatrist and part-time physicians, dentists and
nurses. Volunteers help with immunizations and other
preventative care.
CHAT-H was just the beginning for Paul. When he
enrolled in the Merage School’s HCEMBA program in
2007, he worked with fellow students to create the nonprofit
Illumination Foundation to raise funds, recruit
volunteers and arrange weekly medical clinics to help
Orange County’s homeless. Illumination’s eight-member
board includes Paul, as president, and Merage students
Paul Cho, Aiko Tan and Larry Haynes. Merage professors
Imran Currim and Paul Feldstein serve on the
advisory committee.
“We are also working with several local universities to
build a foundation that will be passed down to incoming
students to reinforce their community networking,” Paul
says.
He cites two Merage courses that “really assisted me
in honing my business management skills. Marketing
helped me see the homeless clients as my customers
and helped me understand their needs vs. their wants.
This makes me a better advocate for the homeless.” His
course in behavior of organizations “enhanced my ability
to understand the dynamics of the county. This
allowed me to favorably position my newly-created
department in an underserved area.”
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Merage | 2008 – 2009