General Information

Name	Heather
Last Name	Floyd
Nickname	heather-floydteamvtg-net

Background

Organization	Valley TeleCom Group
Professional Title	Regulatory Affairs Specialist
Bio and Background	Rural Champion! Currently working as a Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Valley TeleCom Group (www.vtc.net). My primary focuses at work are broadband grants, Government Relations, and Public Relations. Outside of work, I’m a passionate board member of the Arizona Center for Rural Leadership (www.centrl.org). I am actively looking for ways to advance rural Arizona for a vibrant Arizona as a whole.
Why I am a Force for Health® Member...	I work at a rural Internet Service Provider that is a member-owned cooperative. As such, we consider ourselves to be community-based providers who are actively involved in our communities. As we know health is extremely important to overall quality of life, I would like to be an avenue to help increase health in rural communities.
How I use the Force for Health Network Tools	Better quip myself with tools for health as I reach middle age, as a person who has often taken my relative healthy status for granted. To be able to maintain or imporvoe my heath as I age to be an active community member.
My inspiration	Communities and families that are vibrant and work collaboratively to better their communities. Alongside of that, communities and families that embrace culture and art in their daily lives.
Location	Cochise, Graham, Greenlee and Santa Cruz Counties
What would you like people to know about your community?	I consider myself a very regional person vs 1 community. What I would say about all of the 20+ communities that I serve is that they each have their own personalities and are wonderful in their own ways. But I would say as a whole the rural communities do suffer from poor health.

My Citizenship Health Factors

Some of the factors that have been challenging for me have been...	Finding ways to incorporate movement in my daily routine. Changing habits!
It's important for me to be part of my community's health because...	To have viable options for health in our rural communities.
Some of the strength of my community health factors are:	It seems that we have access to healthy food even for our disadvantaged people.
Some of the challenges in my community regarding certain health factors are:	Access to doctors and care without traveling 1+ hour each way. Motivating movement and physical activities.
I believe I can help improve my community's health by...	Sharing resources and amplifying the message.

Advancing the DREAM

Advancing the DREAM - What it means to me

I have many Latinos in my community, which, compounded with two other factors: low income and living in a rural community, are factors that could negatively impact individual health. Our communities also have a larger older population than urban communities.

An individual’s health impacts the community as a whole when we aggregate our community’s health needs. If we can improve the health of individuals, it will lead to better modeling and increased health for all.

My Action Pledge to Advance the DREAM?

My action is to actively look for best practices in rural communities and implement 1 or 2 programs in my rural communities.

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