KC Star Feature: What I'm Thankful For

The Kansas City Star asked me what I was grateful for during my first Thanksgiving as a Kansas City resident for their feature, "What’s Kansas City thankful for this year? Here’s what readers and leaders had to say." Here's what I wrote:

In year two of a disruptive and devastating global pandemic, this Thanksgiving is an opportune time for families to reflect on their blessings, show gratitude and be together. Hopefully you and yours are able to spend long-overdue time together.

Today, I’m thankful for many things: my family, the caregivers on the frontlines of this pandemic and my chance to join Cerner. My wife, Andrea, and I recently moved to Kansas City for this role and we’ve been blown away by how livable, hip and fun Kansas City is. I feel like I’ve come home.

Coming home brings more clarity into what we can all do at Cerner to change healthcare. We have an opportunity to impact millions of lives, by making patient care more efficient and by making physicians’ and nurses’ jobs easier. But along with improving care quality, we’re also working towards addressing critical issues like expanding access to care accessibility and fairness for underserved populations, racism in healthcare and non-clinical health factors like food, housing and transportation (social factors account for about 80% of a person’s health issues).

After nearly two months into this role, Cerner — more than any other company — provides me the unique opportunity to affect real change and improvements in healthcare — from the patient and caregiver experience to quality of care and accessibility and more. That work doesn’t happen without the expertise and help of the 26,000 global associates at Cerner — many of whom also call Kansas City home. Thank you, Cerner associates, for what you’ve built and where we are now headed together.

Additionally, this Thanksgiving, I’m also thankful for Messenger Coffee’s warm cup and avocado toast. I’m thankful for the ability to run along Riverfront Park, stopping by BarK to visit some dogs. I’m thankful for the River Market, where we buy produce, and for the world-class Nelson Atkins and Kemper art museums. I’m thankful for the vibey restaurants in the area — Farina and Café Gratitude have become early favorites — and know there are many others. I’m thankful for the symphony and hopeful for the Chiefs

Kansas City is a beautiful place and I love the unpretentious, friendly Midwestern hospitality we’ve found here. On this Thanksgiving, I’m thankful, for many reasons, to call Kansas City home.