Sometimes the best-laid plans open the door to one’s true professional calling. When Heather Marie Hale was enrolled in trade school studying medical office administration and coding, during an internship, a classmate encouraged her to apply to Blue Shield of California. Heeding Following the advice, she joined the health insurance plans company in 2006 as a customer service representative and has been steadily promoted through the years and ranks to roles she has loved, including customer service lead, senior learning developer, and now, consultant of stakeholder management.
At Blue Shield of California, Ms. Hale is responsible for the intake of the corporation’s project and training requests, working with the training team, assigning trainers, conducting needs assessments to better understand training needs and available resources, and attending project meetings. Her duties also involve assessing impacts on stakeholders; looping in stakeholders to understand processes, potential impacts, and training needs; and creating and developing training materials such as instructional designs. In preparation for new and ever-changing career challenges, Ms. Hale is pursuing a Project Management Professional certification while already certified as a Scrum Master and to present LinkedIn’s “Agile Project Owner Role: Foundations,” “Agile Project Leadership,” and “Project Management Tips.” She holds a Master of Arts in organizational management with an emphasis on project management from The University of Arizona Global Campus, and a Bachelor in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix, where she was named to the Dean’s List.
A married mother of seven children, Ms. Hale credits her successes to the support of her husband, Dennis Hale, and to her courage to remain open to challenges and opportunities. The member of the National Society of Leadership and Success says that no matter what difficulties may cross her path, she puts aside fear and works hard to overcome them, bolstering her personal motto, “She believed that she could, so she did!” Ms. Hale has demonstrated this valued characteristic often during her career, yet an exciting highlight for her was, after a decade working in customer care and becoming a trainer, her ability to quickly process different training concepts with no prior knowledge and provide accurate information for employees to perform their jobs well. She’s also proud of her education and progress in project management, which allowed her to lead and organize a large-scale work assignment that transitioned 200 individuals to a new system still being utilized. As part of the process, she and her colleagues collaborated to create training materials for the participants in the nearly 10-month project.
Caring for her fellow employees and the community at large, Ms. Hale is a mentor and a mentee with the Blue Advisor Mentor Program and co-chair of the Operation VET Employee Resource Group, both at Blue Shield of California. She volunteers at walks to fight cancer and with the Shield Cares Volunteer Program, writing cards to children with cancer in the hospital, visiting veterans’ homes, and handing out cards. In her spare time, Ms. Hale enjoys traveling, reading, and watching movies.
