Michelle Smiley - Senior Community Affairs Analyst for Highmark Health

Michelle Smiley is a Sr. Community Affairs Analyst for Highmark Health, a $26 billion blended health organization that includes one of America's largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Highmark Health's 42,000 employees serve millions of customers nationwide through the nonprofit organization's affiliated businesses, including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, HM Insurance Group, United Concordia Dental, and enGen.

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
And welcome in. This is theCEO's usually no podcast. I'm your host,
Johnny Heart. Well, my guesttoday is Michelle's Miley. Hi.
How are you nice to meet you? Hi? Nice to be even thank
you for having me? All right, Senior Community affairs analysts for high Mark
Health The high Mark Walk for HealthyCommunities just around a corner, tell us
everything we need to know. Ourhigh Mark Walk in Pittsburgh is on May

(00:29):
thirteenth, and we're really excited becauseit's a great chance for nonprofits in the
region to get together and raise moneyto support their causes. Now, this
is your twentieth year, it is. It's a very exciting time for us.
Now, for organizations, it's alittle too late for them to sign
up, But for people who areinterested in helping the various charities, it's

(00:49):
not too late for them though.No, it's definitely not too late.
They can sign up to participate onWalk for a Healthy Community dot org and
they can select Pittsburgh as the lookand then they select the organization that they
want to support, and then theycan either walk as an individual or they
can create a team and even fundraisefor their organizations. What kind of organizations
sign up. They go across thespectrum of any kind of social organization that

(01:14):
we have that high Mark supports organizationsthat support children and women and animals,
and we even Northeast Search and Rescueas one, which is really cool to
me. In how many different organizationssign up this year? We have one
hundred and eighty six organizations. Ohso this is one hundred and eighty different
organizations. You're able to help out, so they aren't able to have their

(01:34):
own walk and so you are ableto get You're giving them an opportunity to
do to have their own walk righthere in Pittsburgh. That's right. High
Mark hosts and fully funds each event. Walkers take care of the funds and
donating to support the organizations that participate. So how many people actually walk in
the event. So we're expecting aboutfive thousand people this year and we're hoping

(01:57):
that everyone comes out and supports ournonprofit. Now, how long have you
been with Himark? I've been withHi Mark since November. Wow, they
threw me into the deep end ofthe pool. Huh, definitely in the
deep end, all right. Soit's been around for a long long time,
and I know things were we're cooking. They're cooking up until the pandemic
and then things got kind of offtrack. How have they after the pandemic?

(02:23):
Did they have Were they seen thesame numbers they did pre pandemic?
No? Um, During the pandemic, we actually had to pivot and to
go virtual walks because of everything everybodydid. Everybody did, so I don't
blame that. So, so you'rereally trying to get the word out,
so people really kind of participate.Now is it the charity that you are

(02:46):
you seeing less charity sign up?Do you see less walkers participants or both
both? Um, we have lesscharity organizations that are coming out and participating,
a lot of them due to staffingissues and all of that. We
have lots of word that they wantto come back, and they will come
back, they're just not ready yetbecause of their own situations. Well yeah,

(03:07):
and also I think, you know, because of the virtual walks and
people get distracted and they don't knowand they you know, So it's it's
such a great opportunity for people tosign up and have their own walk for
us, maybe a smaller charitable organization. You know, you do all you
do, all the hard work don'tyou. We definitely do all the heavy

(03:28):
lifting. Nonprofits really just have tofundraise and focus on their mission and telling
people about their organization. Is therea certain charitable organization that you can you
can point to? It says,yeah, they really know how to use
this walk effectively. Yep. SoDe Paul School for Hearing and Speech.
They have really utilized the walk well. Foster Love is a newer organization within

(03:53):
and they're starting to utilize our platformwell and fundraise. The Women's Center and
Shelter in Pittsburgh. They're also doinga really great job, and they all
of these organizations need support and they'relooking for people to come out and to
donate to their causes. If somebody'slistening and they've never maybe they have,

(04:14):
you know, they participate in acharity organization and they're interested in participating maybe
next year. What's the process?Is there a sign up process? Do
they have to you know? What? Yeah? Tell us what where do
they start? So in August we'llopen up our applications for non profit organizations
and they go through a testing tomake sure that they meet our guidelines for

(04:40):
what high marks going forward? Whatkind of guidelines do you know I mean
how big of an organization, Itdoesn't really matter. It doesn't really matter
how big the organization is. Theyjust have to be a nonprofit. They
have to be in good financial standingand that's pretty much it, okay,
And so that starts a August.They sign up the day of the walk,

(05:03):
what what kind of what do theyhave to do? How much work
has involved as far as the charityis concerned. The nonprofits show up at
six sish six to six thirty inthe morning on day of walk. They
do the setup. We take careof all of the setup, the tents,
the tables and everything. So theybring their banners if they haven't already
given them, and then they setup just their promotional materials for their organization.

(05:27):
They also are providing family friendly activitiesfor children for day of the event
and all of that. So anythingwithin their table, they have control over
what's in there for the most part. But as far as raising money,
it's kind of on the charity.You're providing the walk, the you know,
you know, the the area ofthe you know, the places to
set up. But they have tothey have to do their own legwork.

(05:51):
They have to go out and getparticipants to actually walk to raise money for
their particular charity, right, that'sthey do. They have to do a
lot of work fundraising, and theycan do that. It opens up and
I believe we opened up in Apriland then fundraising ends. Even though the
walk is on for Pittsburgh May thirteenth, fundraising still goes through June thirtieth.

(06:14):
This year. In the twenty years, do you have any idea how much
money the high Mark is raised?We have raised over seventeen million dollars.
Are you kidding me? Yeah,it's a wonderful achievement. I wonder how
many how many organizations have participated overthe last twenty years. I believe we're
over five hundred at this point,Okay, and you have how many participating

(06:38):
this year? This year? Wehave one hundred and eighty six. That's
a lot. That's a lot oforganizations. Is that from your point of
view? Is it kind of likehurting cats because you're you're dealing with a
lot of different organizations, different personalitiesand different charity charities and things like that.
That's gonna be that's going to bea challenge every day. It's a

(06:59):
lot of work. Talking with thenonprofit organization leaders and helping them to focus
on their fundraising efforts. And it'sdefinitely a challenge and one that I'm happy
and excited to be involved. What'syour biggest challenge getting them to really take
advantage of this opportunity. Honestly,Yes, that's the biggest challenge. It
really is, isn't it. Sowhen it comes to participants, what do

(07:20):
they have to do? Participants,they go on Walk for a Healthy Community
dot org. They can select theregion or the location of the walk,
and then they select the nonprofit oftheir choice or more more than one if
they want to just be extremely generous, and then they can either walk as
an individual or they can create ateam and help fundraise for the organizations.

(07:42):
How many different walks do you havein Western Pa? We have seven.
We have one in Harrisburg, LehighValley, Erie, Laurel Highlands, and
Wilmington, Delaware. And then wehave a walk community engagement in Nipa.
Which one's the best? Pittsburgh?All right, but we love them all.

(08:03):
Okay, that was very diplomatic,very good na. But my heart
is with Pittsburgh. Was was Pittsburghthe first one? Pittsburgh was the first
And um, this is the twentiethanniversary, So two thousand and three was
the beginning, all right, Sotell me about Michelle. How did you

(08:24):
get involved with nonprofits? When wemoved here in twenty fifteen, I was
at home with my children and itwas time to get back to work,
and um, I saw the veryfirst position that I was interested was at
the Why of Greater Pittsburgh. AndI saw that and I worked there and

(08:45):
I was different several different wives acrossPittsburgh and loved leading them and did that
for eight years. And then nowI've I'm jumped to high Mark and I'm
loving every bit of it. Andwhat five months you've worked careful? Just
in fact you what started near theholidays? I started in November? Okay?
And then so what has been thebiggest challenge for you personally? I

(09:09):
love every second of it. It'snot a challenge. My days start with
taking care of the organizations that aretaking care of the community, and that's
just a beautiful thing. What wasthe first organization you had to deal with?
Do you remember I went and touredthe Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Food Bank.
Yeah, what a fabulous organization business. It's amazing and it's a lot

(09:33):
more intensive than what you think itis when you actually tour the building,
it's amazing. Did you meet theirCEO Lisa, because she is she is
fabulous. Yeah, Lisa is there, yea. And they were such am
It was such a pillar for Pittsburghduring the pandemic, and you know,

(09:54):
we didn't know if we were goingto survive and if it wasn't for the
volunteer years they had at the PittsburghCommunity Food Bank. What a fabulous organization.
Fabulous they did so much work umduring the pandemic. I remember I
was still with the Why and wegot into our why on the fly van
and we were delivering foods in partnershipwith a Greater Pittsburgh Food Banks. So

(10:18):
it was amazing to just deliver thesemeals to families and meal cats. It's
beautiful and Pittsburgh. I take pridein Pittsburgh because I think Pittsburghers take care
of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgher's is what wedo, you know, you know,
and there's not like a lot ofpeople are just you know, can't wait
to you know, have cloudy skiesevery day and you know, coming into

(10:39):
Pittsburgh, let's go to, youknow, and they still think we're the
you know, the small smoky cityand things like that. They don't realize,
you know, the resources that wehave. One of the fabulous resources
we do have is is your walk. This is an opportunity for nonprofits to
raise a significant amount of money.Michelle and her your staff do all the

(11:03):
hard work. Now they have togo out and recruit people to actually walk
and participate. But you know that, to me, that's probably the easiest
part of the whole thing, rightit's telling their story. It's all you
all, That's all the orcs reallyhave to do. If they tell the
story and talk about what the impactthat they're having on the community, then

(11:24):
people will support them. In yourfive months, we're able to sign up
an organization that never participated in thewalk. We do. We have dozens
of new organizations and if you're anorganization that's out there, just come on
down to the walk, show upand just take a look around and see
what we can do for you.Yeah. So if somebody has never participated,

(11:46):
who want to sign up next yearbecause it's too late for them to
sign up this year, right,that's correct, it's too late and they
can really they can. First ofall, they should check out the website
and then come on down and theyyou can actually see what him can do
for your organization. And so youhow much money have you raised over the
twenty years. It's seventeen point fourmillion dollars. That's amazing and just over

(12:11):
five hundred organizations that you have helped. If there was anything, if there
was anything you want people to knowabout the walk, what is the one
thing you want people to know?Honestly, people need or support these organizations.
They're worthy and if you come downand you support them, you'll see
all the great work that they doand you can be a part of it.
It's really easy, and then youcan participate and just have a fun,

(12:35):
great day downtown in Pittsburgh. Now, if somebody wants to for a
charity, it doesn't cost them anythingto sign up, right, Nope,
it's free for charities to participate infund rates. And for the people who
walk, is there a charge forthat? There's not a charge to walk.
We do hope that most people whoparticipate will do a donation to an
organization that they want to support,and a lot of people have seventeen million

(12:58):
dollars worth. That's amazing. That'sgot to be a source of pride.
I'm very happy to be on thisteam and Himark does a wonderful job.
Him Mark Walk for a Healthy Community. Sign up and get more info at
Walk for a Healthy Community dot org. Michelle, thank you so much.
Thank you. This has been theCEOs you Should Know podcast, showcasing businesses

(13:18):
that are driving our regional economy.Part of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities we
serve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thankyou so much for listening.