Employee Spotlight: Deb Laine

In Northern Minnesota, you'll find a familiar beautiful rural landscape, lush and vibrant in the summer and brilliantly snow covered in the winter. It is here, among this idyllic setting, where a 40-acre farm owned by Deb Laine and her husband, can be found. 

"The freedom of living in rural is an amazing perk," Laine shares as she talks about life on the farm. Long walks in the woods on warmer days or snowshoeing in the winter give her time alone with her thoughts and an appreciation for nature. She can take it all in without the hustle and bustle of "city life" dictating her next move.

Freedom, however, looks different on a farm. Laine shares that life there is a choice, hard work, and deeply rewarding in a personal way. It helps her stay grounded, focused, and appreciative of the rural communities she works with. She doesn't keep that perspective to herself, though.

It's not uncommon to find Deb catching planes, renting cars, and staying at family-owned hotels in rural towns far from her own and across the country. She visits these places in her role at the National Rural Health Resource Center, assisting rural health care organizations with strategic planning, community engagement, performance evaluations, and the development of meaningful partnerships and leadership skills.

"I use my experience on the farm to help drive creativity," she notes. "Things like running out to the coop to get an egg rather than running to the store." This simple anecdote, among others, helps Laine shape an approach to technical assistance that focuses on problem solving with the resources organizations have on hand rather than those that may seem convenient but are far from it. "If I am halfway through a recipe and need an egg, well, that's a simple fix. If it's an ingredient I can only buy at the store, then that takes some creative thinking. Over time, I've learned what can be substituted."

Laine began her work at The Center nearly 11 years ago after spending a decade designing and implementing education programs in northeastern Minnesota. As a program specialist working with The Center's Community and Population Health team, she brings a passion for helping organizations reach their goals for improving health outcomes, with an added focus on community care coordination. Her extensive background in training, facilitation, and presentation skills are utilized to help organizations in their strategic planning, evaluation, collaboration, and community engagement. 

The Center's mission includes serving as a national knowledge center that strives to build state and local capacity, and it takes pride in the fact that its employees bring unique rural experiences to their day-to-day work. "It's important that our staff not only relate to the people we serve, but that they can draw from their own experiences to build incredibly impactful technical assistance," Alyssa Meller, The Center's COO, says of the team based in 18 states. "Much of the unique approach to our work is grounded in the lived experiences of our staff. It's a built-in added benefit we are happy to provide."

This approach plays a large role in Laine's passion. "I travel to these communities and see places that look a lot like mine, and they share the same concerns I may have. On the farm, we must be diligent, resourceful, and innovative, similar principles used in health care. It's a reminder that we are all in this together."

There are constant opportunities to grow and learn, Laine says, with no two days on the farm ever being the same, much like the health care industry. "It's about how we look at challenges as opportunities.Connecting lived experiences and the lessons learned helps leaders see these opportunities in a meaningful way. To hear it from someone impacted by their decisions makes a difference." 

Visit The Center's website for more information about the work we do and the communities we serve.