We Not Me

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Episode 26 - Teams in disaster relief

Show Notes

Expertise can allow us to flourish in our comfort zones, but when thrust into a new environment, we have to rely on others. For Janet and Reid Boswell, what started as a parish-wide mission to bring aid to post-earthquake Haiti ended up as a mini industry, delivering medicine and dental care to the people of Haiti.

Takeaways from Dan and Pia

  • The collaborative mindset was transferred from Haiti back home.
  • Reid had to let go of his need to control, in order to work within a team.
  • We need to journey outside of our comfort zones to discover what’s possible.

Links

Meet the guests

Janet Boswell, MPA is Director of Special Projects with Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit that embeds early literacy promotion into paediatric primary care, serving 4.5 million children annually. She has worked in a variety of youth-serving non-profits and enjoys helping organisations with great missions adopt 21st Century development, marketing, and management strategies.
Janet is active in town government, leads the board of a therapeutic camp, and chairs the Mission and Outreach Committee of her church. She has been part of a medical mission team that, until recently, made yearly trips to Haiti. Janet lives in Winchester, Massachusetts with her husband and three young adult children.
Reid Thomas Boswell was born and grew up in Atlanta, GA. He received his BS in Biology from Wheaton College, Illinois and MD from Emory University, Atlanta, GA. Reid was an urgent care physician in Gloucester, MA from 1986-1991, then completed his training in Occupational Medicine at Boston University, including a degree in Masters of Public Health. He has been the Medical Director for the Occupational Health Services at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA since 1994. He and his family settled in Winchester, MA. Reid and his wife, Janet have three children ages 25, 23, and 21.
Reid has been an active member of the Parish of the Epiphany, a progressive Episcopal Community in Winchester. Reid became involved with the Parish’s mission to provide medical care to rural villages in the West Province of Haiti after the devastating earthquake of 2011. He has made six trips to Haiti since 2012. He is also a member of a local ukulele group (the “Shukelele’s) and Dog Dad to a shepherd/malamute mix and an Arubian Cunucu.