Dallice Joyner - Executive Leaders Radio

Dallice Joyner
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Something From Nothing
Dallice Joyner, the fourth of six children,
grew up poor but happy in the tiny rural town of
Garland, North Carolina. From nothing, the
McKoy family made something, and they did it
together. By the age of six, Dallice was helping out
in the tobacco fields, and ever after contributed to
the family’s finances as much as possible. At 17,
the schedule she kept would’ve overwhelmed
most adults; waking up at 5:30 AM to drive a
morning bus route, attending school, then driving
the afternoon route with only twenty minutes to
spare before her 4:30 shift at the local shirt factory.
After the shift ended at 9:30 PM, she
still found time to do homework and
participate in sports.
Dallice and her five siblings
were all expected to help provide for
the family. Her three sisters worked in
the shirt factory as well, but only
Dallice went to such extremes as
working the bus route on top of
everything else. “I never felt any
resentment,” she recalls, thinking back
on her hectic high school schedule. “It
was my idea. I don’t know how I did
all that, but those were some amazing
years. The experience showed me what I was
capable of, and I couldn’t make a whole lot of
excuses.” All of Dallice’s earnings were shared
equally with her family, but she was happy to help
as much as possible, and out of that attitude of
hard work and selflessness, she has built a career
climbing the ladder while helping others climb
right along with her.
Today, Dallice is the Executive Director of
the Northern Virginia Area Heath Education
Center (NVAHEC), an organization dedicated to
supporting local health care providers by helping
to offer services to vulnerable populations. AHEC
centers exist across the country, with seven in
Virginia alone, but their mission and activities vary
from place to place based on community need.
NVAHEC, for instance, focuses specifically on
enabling communication between non-English
speakers and healthcare providers by training
high-quality interpreters and promoting access to
their services. “Everybody takes that role just a
little bit for granted,” Dallice points out. “But we
always say that, during a healthcare encounter,
interpreters are the most important people in the
room. They understand both languages and both
cultures when nobody else does.”
Founded in 1995, Dallice took over as the
Executive Director in 2005, conscious that her role
was not to sustain the organization, but to grow it.
She brought in business consultants to build a
practical strategy to move forward,
and in her tenure there, has
transitioned the group from 47
percent fee-for-service to 95 percent
fee-for-service. Today they have a
budget of almost $2 million, with
only one small federal grant of
about $100,000. Just as importantly,
the group has never been better
regarded in the healthcare
community. “We know hands
down from clients that we are the
best language access organization in
the state, and that we come highly
recommended,” she explains. “We do a certificate
program for interpreters, filling a gap where
otherwise, there would be none. Today, our
certifications are recognized across the state.”
Indeed, at any given time, NVAHEC employs
between 100 and 150 contract interpreters. The
group also works closely with health care
organizations, setting up capacity to
institutionalize language access.
Dallice’s success at NVAHEC is only the
latest chapter in her astonishing rise out of
poverty, and she attributes her success in no small
part to her mother’s unwavering strength.
Married at 14 and with only an eighth grade
education, she worked at the shirt factory and was
a living example of tenacity and independence.
“She always said to us, ‘Be able to take care of
yourself. Don’t depend on other people to do
Dallice Joyner

things for you.’” Dallice recalls. “And we took that
and have used it in our lives. I’ve always had a
sense that, if I want to do something, no one is
going to do it for me.”
Along with working in tobacco fields from
age six, she and her three older sisters worked in
the blueberry fields every summer from early
morning until evening. Her mother’s attitude of
“do what you’ve got to do” rubbed off on all of her
children, and Dallice remembers the long days in
the blueberry fields as happy ones. Although the
family was close, her father, a butcher at the local
grocery store, suffered from alcoholism
throughout her childhood, finally getting sober
twenty years ago—and for those years, Dallice is
profoundly grateful.
In tiny Garland, only 28 students
graduated in Dallice’s high school class, and 16 of
them black. Of the eight young black men, none
attended college. Of the seven women, Dallice
was one of a few who went on to college, and one
of the only young black women in her class to
initially earn her Bachelor’s degree. She still
fondly recalls the three high school teachers who
were particularly instrumental in encouraging her
talents, Mr. Norris, Ms. Boney, and Ms. Thompson.
The latter two, as black women, served as
aspirational role models. “If I stepped out of line,
they would either call my mom or show up at my
house!” she laughs today. “There was constant
communication between all of them, and they
were genuinely interested in me and my future.”
After graduation, Dallice went on to pursue her
B.S. in Health Education, and then reluctantly
returned to Garland to look for work.
Her first job out of school was with the
Health Department of her home county, providing
blood pressure checks and health education for
rural communities. Despite long hours, the
position was a rewarding one. “Going into the
community really reinforced my love for people,
and for being able to make things happen,” she
says, remembering her experiences as a health
educator. She recalls the creativity necessary for
running programs with few or no resources; in one
community, she was sent to help raise awareness
in women of high blood pressure and the
importance of exercise, but a suitable place for
aerobic activity was difficult to come by. Adept by
now at making something out of nothing,
however, she asked the local men to give up half of
their basketball court for the purpose, and twice a
week, she would drive 50 miles each way with a
boombox and cassette tape to teach.
Two years later, as she was preparing to
leave for a new job, the town decided to organize a
walk-a-thon for the American Heart Association.
It had been Dallice’s enthusiasm and passion that
had gotten the people genuinely interested in their
health, and she was able to move on in her career
with a profound sense of accomplishment. Taking
care of people—and helping people take care of
themselves—has thus been the focus of her life
ever since. “One of the things I concluded in my
early adult years about my passion is that, of
course, things are important,” she admits. “Houses
are important and money is important. But people
are our greatest commodity, and in my mind,
that’s where our investment should be.”
After three years living back in Garland,
Dallice knew it was time for a change. Most
people there stayed put, and even her mother was
shocked when Dallice accepted a job offer from the
Health Department in Winston-Salem. But Dallice
had a plan: she would go to graduate school and
further advance herself.
The Health Department in Winston-Salem
was a vastly different environment from the one
she’d left behind, but she had to learn how to
apply the skills she’d acquired in Garland to a
much more resource-rich community, and to adapt
to an urban health department. “That transition
taught me a whole lot,” she details. “It taught me
how to be much more versatile, whatever
environment I was in.” Her boss also proved to be
a great inspiration, especially when at the end of
her first year, she was given a “fair” on her
employee evaluation. Livid, she demanded to
know why. Her boss replied that, while her work
was good, she never took any risks, and that push
was all Dallice needed to begin fully embracing
her potential. “It made a world of difference,
because she saw things in me that I didn’t see,”
Dallice affirms. “That was the potential she was
trying to pull out in me.” The next year, she
received an “excellent” on her evaluation.
Before she left Winston-Salem, she had
obtained a Master’s in Education, with a
concentration in Community Health, and become
the Health Education Director. She had twelve
people working under her, and she was building
the leadership skills she would need to
successfully run NVAHEC. Her next position was
as a consultant for the state government, and here
Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area

too she found a mentor in an effective boss, yet
another influence who helped shape her
leadership skills. Dallice watched her boss
carefully over three years. “Not a month goes by
that I don’t use something she taught me,” she
says. From that consulting position, she then
moved on to run NVAHEC.
As a leader, Dallice thinks of herself as
hands-off in general but intolerant of poor quality
of work. “I’m relatively laid back as a leader,
especially if I’ve got the right staff in place,” she
explains. “To me, it’s important to have a staff that
I trust and respect, that I believe in, who can get
things done. I like to be able to delegate a
responsibility and not dictate how it happens. I
consider micromanaging to be babysitting adults,
and I’m not good at it!” Fortunately, after eight
years of running NVAHEC, she feels she has in
place a dependable staff that trusts her vision and
operates effectively.
Her personal life, as well, is a tremendous
source of happiness for Dallice. Married for 24
years, her husband, 21-year-old daughter, and 17-
year-old son are her greatest priorities. “They are
my main motivation,” she avows. “At the end of
the day, as long as my husband, my children, and
my dog think I’m the neatest person in the world, I
know I’ve done the right thing.”
Her husband’s support has been a major
positive force as she’s fought to build her career.
“He’s one of my biggest cheerleaders,” she smiles.
“One of the things I appreciate so much about him
is that he’s never tried to hold me back
professionally. Instead, he celebrates every move I
make.” For someone dedicated to investing in
people, it’s hardly surprising that family is so
important to Dallice—she also maintains constant
contact with her mother and siblings, all of whom
remain in North Carolina.
As someone whose legacy revolves around
the vital contributions she’s made to her family
and to society, Dallice believes young adults are a
particularly important group to be investing in.
“Guidance and assistance at this crucial time in a
person’s life can turn into a lifetime of success,”
she points out. That’s why, when advising young
people entering the working world today, Dallice
advocates for the importance of education while
also reminding us that education isn’t everything.
“I tell people all the time that my mom is
the smartest person I know, and she has an eighth
grade education level,” Dallice points out.
“Keeping that perspective, I think, is very
important. Education is certainly vital, but it’s not
going to get you through everything in life.”
Indeed, more important than any degree is hard
work, a strong will, and an empathetic heart; three
things Dallice Joyner, like her mother before her,
have used to make something out of nothing and
to really make something of themselves.
By Gordon J. Bernhardt, CPA, PFS, CFP ® , AIF ®
About Gordon J. Bernhardt
President and founder of Bernhardt Wealth
Management and author of Profiles in Success:
Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the
Washington D.C. Area, Gordon provides financial
planning and wealth management services to affluent
individuals, families and business-owners throughout
the Washington, DC area. Since establishing his firm
in 1994, he and his team have been focused on
providing high-quality service and independent
financial advice to help clients make informed decisions
about their money. For more information, visit
www.BernhardtWealth.com and Gordon’s Blog.
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Dallice Joyner

Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington D.C. Area