Spring Summer 2018

The Oregon Caregiver Spring/Summer 2018 www.ohca.com 20 PROFILE Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward is the co-chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Services, which oversees the state budget for long term care services and supports. What inspired your work in public service? I decided to be a physician when I was four, and I ended up choosing family medicine because I am interested in the broader understandings of public health—whole person, whole family, and community. I’ve been involved in advocacy for medical organizations pretty much my whole career and especially starting in 2002. A few years after that I was approached to run for public office, but I wasn’t ready. Then in 2011, I was encouraged to run for the senate seat being vacated by now Congresswoman Bonamici, and at that point I was ready. In many ways politics is a lot like medicine where people subspecialize—they want to focus on education, or health, or something. But I am a generalist, and I wanted to bring that perspective to the legislature. How does your work as a physician inform your work in the legislature? Family physicians are trained to look at big picture issues. We don’t look at one small part or one system in the body; we look at a person as a whole. That training has helped me understand how different issues connect to each other. There are some other skills related to being a physician that are important to being a good legislator like a willingness to be a lifelong learner, communication skills, teambuilding and teamwork skills, the ability to ask good questions, and also to have patience. What are some of the important leadership skills you’ve learned? I’m a big fan of leadership from below, which is trying to understand the people you’re leading and what their priorities are and what their concerns are. Many important leadership skills are skills that people practice in their lives outside of work too, like trying not to play favorites, judging people equally, judging people’s priorities equally, and trying to be as inclusive and transparent in decision making processes as possible. One other difficult but important challenge for leaders, especially those in the legislature, is to balance a potentially conflicting set of priorities. How would you describe your leadership style? I try to listen more than I talk, to ask more questions, to do my homework, to hire great staff—if you don’t have a great team it is impossible to get things done—to thank people, and to acknowledge people’s contributions publicly and personally. Who has been an impactful leader in your life, and what have you learned from watching them? First and foremost, my father. He was a lawyer by training, and he was the general counsel and vice president for Harvard for most of my life. After that he was the president of the New England Conservatory of Music. He was the first non-musician to lead a major music school. There were people who were really apprehensive about this appointment but he demonstrated that he would do what he was really good at and then turn to other people who were good at things he wasn’t. He was never afraid to hand over responsibility to other people, and he always believed in people and their abilities. He demonstrated all of the skills of a good leader I talked about like sharing success, turning to other people, and having a good understanding for what you do and don’t know. Also my residency director Dr. John Saultz. He taught me to ask really good questions. Senator Peter Courtney has certainly impacted me. He demonstrates an enormous amount of respect for other people in the legislature regardless of party and he values the institution, which is so important. He’s great at figuring out what people are good at and makes very thoughtful committee appointments. Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward POLICY MAKER