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Leading, Even Against the Grain
Anne Warhover, President and CEO, The Colorado Health Foundation
Leadership Denver Class of 1992
Anne Warhover’s most powerful memory from her tenure as a member of Leadership Denver’s class of ‘92 is that she was expecting her second child.
That’s only natural. Her second-strongest memory is less personal, but sounds more obscure: Square dancing.
Warhover’s class tripped the light fantastic — country style — at its overnight retreat. And those two personal impressions retained by Warhover, at the time a Denver banker, demonstrate the way her life links the personal and the professional.
“Through my experience with Leadership Denver, I met some amazing people in professions I didn’t even know existed,” she said. “Those people helped me form some of my beliefs that I hold today and that help me in my work.”
As a result of those impacts, Warhover advises current and future Leadership Denver participants to get to know their classmates. “Leadership Denver is an amazing opportunity to get to know people you would [otherwise] never have occasion to meet. Have coffee, beer, lunch, something with one classmate every week. And then in the years after LD, try to keep up with the people you feel the greatest bond with.”
Warhover’s career has transformed her skills at meeting and listening to individuals into work that shapes the business landscape. Since 2004, she has headed the Colorado Health Foundation. Previously, she was president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership during a watershed period that saw the redevelopment of Skyline Park and the planning of the Central Platte Valley neighborhood, which created a new live-and-work environment from railroad tracks and empty lots near Downtown.
Her experience gives her a wide-ranging perspective on what type of leadership will benefit the city. “Denver needs leaders who are really willing to lead — step out for what is right regardless of public opinion polls; step up for what is right regardless of what their Rolodex will say; step out for what is right for the long-term common good, not for the immediate payback of the individual; step up in times of disagreement. It is easy to lead when everyone agrees. Leadership requires one to state what one believes regardless of what others might say.”
Warhover walks the talk by matching her career to her advice. Her organization strives to improve the health status of all Coloradans, and on its Web site, she promises stakeholders that Colorado Health Foundation will share both successes and misfires, “because we often can learn as much from what fails as what succeeds.”
She sees this work as central to the City of Denver’s needs. “Our biggest challenge by far is that we do not grow our own healthy and educated children … we import healthy and educated folks. We need to look at education and health as one challenge, because they are inextricably linked. Once education and health leaders come together, we might be able to do something bigger than work at the edges of these problems.”
Most importantly, Warhover urges other Coloradans to help, no matter their vocation or time constraints. “When one teaches something, one makes a commitment, whether they know it or not,” Warhover remarked. “We need to get people to carve out a little bit of their already crowded lives to work for the common good.”
May 15th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Hi Anne. I saw Bob & Diane last month in Hawaii and we cried together over Jamie. How time flys and look how much you’ve accomplished. I hope you are well and happy. Kyla